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BOOK OF INITIATION 


AND 

GENERAL MEMBERSHIP 

IN THE GREAT 

/ 

Ralston Health Club 

'\ 

OF AMERICA 

( 85 ) EIGHTY-FIFTH ( 85 ) EDITION ( 85 ) 


c) 


‘‘ Nor love, nor honor, wealth nor power, 
Can give the heart a cheerful hour 
When health is lost. Be timely wise. 
With health all taste of pleasure flies.” 


> V ^ O ) O -* 0 

> ) 3 ) ) ) 

5 J ) > 

> > 5 ) > > ♦ 




Issued by the 

RALSTON PUBLISHING COMPANY 
WASHINGTON, D. C. 

1903 


4 





^ ( 

I 



0 


THE LIBRARY OF 
CONGRESS, 

Two Copies Received 

JAN 30 1903 

Copyrignt Entry 
CLASS XXd. No. 

b ^ 

COPY B. 


Copyrighted 1902, by 

Ralston Publishing Company 


All rights reserved 










OUR FIRST WORDS 


1. A great man has said: “ Give me the truth at any cost, 
and give it to me at once. Brevity is the priceless jewel of 
modern literature.” 

2. This edition, of the General Membership Book, while 
larger than others, contains many more facts, even in pro¬ 
portion to its size; for all the verbiage, long drawn out de¬ 
scription, speculative discussion and extended matter will be 
found condensed into Crisp Facts, Plain Facts, Valuable 
Facts. 

3. A busy man said: Your Book of General Membership 
is too long. Busy folks have not time to read so much. Con¬ 
dense it, so that its truths may be read and studied the more 
quickly, and you will do the world a good turn. Get skill¬ 
ful men of-the best scientific education to boil it down, and it 
will then be worth five dollars a copy.” 

4. While we have presented the facts in the most compact 
form, we have added many others that seemed necessary in 
order to keep up with the times. 

THIS BOOK DOES NOT MAKE YOU A MEMBER 
until you choose to be initiated in the manner stated in the 
fourth chapter. 

THE ELEXIBLE BINDING is preferred to the stiff 
covers. It is durable and far more beautiful, and permits the 
book to be rolled and conveniently carried under all circum¬ 
stances for ready reference and reading. 


THE PRICE OF THIS BOOK 


At Retail . $i-5o 

At Wholesale (and to members). i.io 


Including all the rights, privileges and incidents of Mem¬ 
bership, as well as all Reports, Greetings, Annuals and 
Instructions that may be issued from time to time. 

THERE IS NO OTHER EXPENSE NOW OR AT ANY TIME 



\ 

1 




OBJECTS OF THE RALSTON HEALTH 
CLUB 


1. We would teach the importance of taking care of the 
health while it yet remains. 

2. We would restore to health all who are sick. 

3. We would not discard physicians; but would seek aid 
from the Natural Laws of life, and thus help the honest 
doctor in his efforts to cure disease. 

4. We would teach the plain causes of ill health in such a 
way that men, women and children will know and avoid the 
consequences of every injudicious act. 

5- We would come into the lives of all who are diseased, 
and show them the way to health, wherever it is within the 
range of human possibility to grant this blessing. 

6. We would acquaint them with the inevitable laws of life, 
the tendencies of disease and the possibilities of cure. 

7. We would warn them against using patent medicines, 
or taking into the system any drugs, except when prescribed 
by a local physician of well-established reputation. 

8. We would teach the great fact that Nature tends to 
heal all disease as soon as the irritating cause is removed. 

9. We would aid them to form an alliance with Nature, 
which furnishes the impulses of life, and is therefore the source 
of health and recovery. 

10. We would teach them the greatest of laws, that the 
faculties are best preserved by their continuous use; and, with 
perfected health and strengthened faculties, they should reach 
the highest plane of earthly achievement. 

11. We would spread the doctrines of good health, cleanly 
lives, purity of heart, and progressive existence; encourage 
Ralstonites to build homes on these principles, and thus pro¬ 
tect the public from the misfortunes of disease and decadence. 


“THIS IS AN AGE OF RALSTONISM" 


O ALSTONISM is the grandest movement that man is capable 
of establishing.—Guernsey. 

A NATOMY, that sacred gei^esis which shows us the master- 
^ piece of the Creator, and which teaches us how little and 
how great man is, ought to form the constant study of mankind. 
But we ought not to consider the organs of the body as the lifeless 
forms of a mechanical mass, but as the living, active instruments 
of the soul.—Ling. 

T IFE is the happiest gift of God; and the human body is the 
best of Nature’s handiwork. It is perfect in design and 
wonderful in construction. Carelessness, aided by ignorance, is 
responsible for all its diseases and all its defects. A regulated 
system of health would astound mankind with results both mar¬ 
velous and enjoyable.—Hale. 

C TAR of hope and circle of perfection! Twin symbol of ideal 
Nature’s grand estate! If ever the purposes of God are 
realized in the life of man, it must be through some such plan 
as that for which Ralstonism so earnestly pleads.—Abbott. 

'‘"p HE efforts of the physician must be seconded by the patient, 
and this concurrence must not be faint and faltering, but 
determined and earnest. If his energies, or what remains of them, 
can thus be enlisted in his own behalf, the victory is already half 
gained.—Taylor. 


QVER the firmament of modern science the Star of Ralstonism 
has ascended to its zenith. It is the guiding star that never 
sets in the life of that human being who believes that the care of 
health is a duty; that the dictates of common sense should be 
observed in eating; that cheerfulness is a virtue; and that true 
home life is the basis of a nation’s grandeur. 

ATURAL laws, which are the angels of the Most High, and 
obey his mandates, are rolling on the time when the child 
shall die a hundred years old” (Isaiah lxv:2o), when sickness 
shall fade from the world and with it the sins of the soul. Then 
men shall stand up with no sickness in the body, and no taint of 
sin in the soul. My hope for the human race is bright as the 
morning star, for a glory is coming to man such as the most 
inspired tongues of prophets and of poets have never been able 
to describe.— Emerson. 


ECHOES OF THE PAST 


From an Address at the First Meeting 

July 4, 1876 

Everywhere in life we behold evidences of this purpose of Na¬ 
ture to maintain perfect health in the human body, and we see 
this purpose constantly thwarted by the indifference of men and 
women who place no value on health until they have lost it. To 
be careful costs nothing; to be sensible is inexpensive; but to be 
indifferent when well costs years of suffering and money enough 
to buy a home. Poverty and disease never come unless invited. 

From Preface to the First (Manuscript) Edition 
March 4, 1881 

Since our little society has increased, so that it is not possible 
to meet one another in anything like a regular way, we are com¬ 
pelled by the unanimous voice of our friends to do something 
toward preserving the principles heretofore laid down in open 
meeting. The Ralston doctrines are really founded upon two 
ideas : First that there is a natural cause for every disease; second, 
that there is a natural cure for the same. Among our members is 
a man who admits, and whose physician admits, that he would 
now be in his grave but for Ralstonism; also a mother whose life 
was spared to her family after her doctors had declared that there 
was no hope; also a girl (whose sister’s grave is an unnecessary 
one) who came to a knowledge of Ralstonism in time to save her 
own life; and others who are indebted to these unfailing principles 
of Mother Nature for the blessings of health that could not other¬ 
wise be enjoyed. These are our only reasons for seeking to pre¬ 
serve in written form, for the use of other generations, the noblest 
things of human experience. 

From Preface to the Second Edition 

There are valuable opportunities awaiting us on every hand for 
the improvement, not only of health, but of mind and all our cir¬ 
cumstances in life, if we but had our attention called to them, 
and knew how to appropriate them to our own use. But they are 
lost. Our bodies undergo a constant wear and tear which, in a 
much shorter time than Nature intends, superannuates them. We 
commence to wear out as soon as we are born. 



J^e^innin^ ©f 


THE SOCIAL DIVISION 







CHAPTEE ONE 


Early History of Ralstonism 

•J* MEN OF WEALTH AND EDUCATION ^ 
SEARCHING ONLY FOR THE TRUT H 
^ FOUND THESE FACTS IN NATURE’S BOUND- 
•J* LESS VAULT ^ ^ ^ -j. 


(5 I HIS IS PROBABLY the last edition of the General 

4 I Membership Book of the Ralston Health Club, 
owing to the fact that a permanent and unchanging 
work is necessary, and a greater obligation rests upon us to 
make it complete in all matters. Previous editions have re¬ 
ferred to the fragmentary history of the rise of Ralstonism; 
stating only the leading details. Curiosity has asked for 
more; and, as far as any information is within our reach, we 
shall be glad to present it in full. We then wish our readers 
and members to draw their own conclusions as to the source, 
the meaning, and the ultimate goal of this movement. 

The very dawn of this idea was in an apparently accidental, 
but supremely sincere prayer of an old man. One among 
many cherished papers in a handwriting that was dim with 
age contained the following paragraph, corrected to suit the 
spelling of to-day: “Thursday, January the first, in the year 
1801. Sickness and death prevail by lack of care. Good 
lives perish by wrong; for to be ignorant and careless is' 
wrong. I was near the grave at the age of 41. There was 
no help. My poor body was a wreck. It was pitiable to 
look upon. I got no good from physick. Though death 



12 


The Ralston Health Club 


would be a relief from endless misery, I prayed for life. It 
rested with me. I began to inquire what food and what 
habits I must adopt. I tried hard all the time, for weeks 
and months, till my weak blood was improved. At this day, 
the first of a new century, I am in perfect health, so far as I 
know. I breathe one prayer for all mankind. May they 
study themselves to get health! for everthing fails without 
this blessing.’^ The document was in faded ink, but a copy 
was handed down from father to son, and the ideas bore 
fruit where least expected. 

The next step was taken in 1866, when a family of five boys 
and five girls, then motherless, were marching in solemn pro¬ 
cession to the grave. Weak constitutions, sensitive to every 
form of debility, were unable to withstand the assault of his 
dark majesty. Death. Four of the girls and one brother had 
passed on. The remaining four brothers, now men, looked 
upon the one remaining sister and seemed to ask each the 
question: Is there no skill, no art, no magic that can save the 
life of this loved girl? Must the family melt away helplessly? 
Whatever they said in fact, they acted. Doctors had accomp¬ 
lished nothing. Medicines had failed. The four brothers 
saw themselves racked and pinched with disease; yet with iron 
courage they started in to make a great battle for existence. 

Out from a mass of papers, yellow with age, a collegian 
extracted the document referred to in the preceding account; 
and by mere chance it came, through the hands of a friend, to 
the brothers, who were impressed with its simplicity and earn¬ 
estness. They copied it. There was something in its lan¬ 
guage that, despite a plain and straightforwarl sincerity, 
seemed to abide with them as a power breathing from the past 
age. T. hey read it again and again. The words had a fascin¬ 
ation they could not describe, nor shake off. These bro¬ 
thers ascertained for themselves the needed habits of living, 
and found them to be free from all difficulty. They had be¬ 
come convinced that medicines ruin the blood; and a little 


Early History of Ralstonism 


13 


reasoning told them that natural laws alone could give per¬ 
fect health. The five physical wrecks became new beings, 
strong in body and vigorous in vitality. 

The first two links had been forged in the chain of Ralston¬ 
ism, yet it had not been recognized as such. Time was neces¬ 
sary. If these preparatory steps were not the inspiring cause 
of what followed, they would be of no concern to us. They 
were directly responsible for the results without being really 
associated with them. They served to arouse an interest in 
others who were keen enough to see the power they repre¬ 
sented; and, having done this, they had accomplished more 
than the mere saving of the lives that were directly, involved. 

Now comes one energetic man and undertakes to forge the 
chain itself. He had the material thus far at hand, and he 
caught the impulsive spirit that makes the cause an ever¬ 
growing force. He was an educated biologist. He knew the 
human body as an engineer knows his engine. One day a 
friend of his, in supposed perfect health, dropped dead of 
heart failure; and, in the week, two able-bodied men, who 
would have laughed at the thought of ever being sick, were 
taken from life by fatal pneumonia. Here were three deaths 
of men in health; and no one would have predicted their de¬ 
parture for ten or twenty years to come. In the spring that 
followed, a lady friend was dying of consumption; her demise 
being hastened by the loss of five nieces in three weeks from 
diphtheria, and all under the same roof. 

Full of wonder at the ease with which death may claim its 
victim, this man made a tour of investigation for the purpose 
of learning how many persons in health had been taken pre¬ 
maturely from life. There was the “ empty chair ” of the 
husband in one family; of the wife in another; of the father, 
mother, sister, brother, daughter, son, and loved one, scat¬ 
tered through many houses; and one and all, almost without 
exception, seemed to say ‘‘the death was unnecessary; it 
might have been prevented.’’ 


14 


The Ralston Health Club 


A physician of large practice said, twenty years ago that 
sixty per cent of the men and eighty-five 'p^ ^cent of the 
women of this country know that they are in ill health; while 
a large majority of the others are possessed of organic diseases 
which have not yet become apparent to them. This state¬ 
ment has been confirmed by many other physicians since then. 
The term perfect health is not a true one; for it would be rare 
indeed to find a man or woman of whom it could be said that 
no trace of disease was present in the body. The blood is 
created daily, and is easily made muddy by improper food or 
drink; thus affecting the head, nerves, stomach and the 
general condition, causing depression and laying the foun¬ 
dation of disease. Perfect health is buoyant under all circum¬ 
stances, and attended by such clear evidences of its presence 
that it can never be mistaken. The real fact is that fully 
ninety-nine per cent of all people are diseased, although not 
so many are aware of their condition, and a great majority 
suffer no inconvenience from the dangers that are quietly 
working in the dark within their bodies, until the awful cli¬ 
max comes. 

The one man who first undertook to stem the increasing 
tide of indifference and absolute abuse of the health soon 
found his efforts seconded by three others. These four per¬ 
sons were earnest, sincere untiring scientists. They adopted 
as their motto; “ No theories, but honest facts.” They 

established what they were pleased to call their laboratory. 
This consisted of a large room, connected with smaller apart¬ 
ments. The equipment could not have been possible to per¬ 
sons without wealth. So valuable was the apparatus, and so 
important were the processes of many experiments, that no 
servant was ever admitted. These men took care of the 
rooms, for fear of accidents through carelessness. 

Here every kind of light was analyzed. Here heat in its 
varying forms came to be known. Here electricity, magnet¬ 
ism and glame were studied. Here air and gases, water, oils, 


Early History of Ralstonism 


15 


liquids and the substances of earth were resolved and re-re¬ 
solved to their elements. Here molecules and atoms drew 
close attention. Here the human body, its blood and bone, 
nerve, tissue, muscle and brain, and all the operations of all 
the functions of myriad and mysterious life were made to pass 
and repass before the searching eye of the investigators. No 
man and no body of men have ever reached truths so valu¬ 
able and important to mankind as those which came to re¬ 
ward the efforts of these early Ralstonites. 

The chief basis of value in any science is the actual good 
that may be accomplished in behalf of humanity. From the 
immense society of to-day, it is a long and a giant stride back 
to the dawn of Ralstonism, back even to the first experiment, 
where the journey began; as it was the germ of the laboratory. 
This first experiment consisted of taking a drop of blood from 
a human body before eating, and analyzing it; then taking 
another drop from the same person after eating, and noting 
the change in the blood, especially in its nutrition and vital 
character, as each kind of food was taken. From the first 
but telling experiment, down through all the years of 
discovery that followed the field of labor has been fruitful in 
results, and the world has been made richer thereby. 

It is a monument of honor to the early Ralstonites that they 
freely spread the news of the truths they had discovered; and 
that all sincere persons were given access to the facts, prin¬ 
ciples and doctrines, without cost, except the trouble to which 
they might be put in copying. As no attempt had been 
made to print any of the doctrines of Ralstonism, they were 
free to all. Copying, however, was a great trouble; and the 
services of typewriters were exceedingly expensive; a single 
book would cost many dollars for each person. Some 
employed writers for this purpose; and, later on, a number of 
typewritten copies were made at private expense, one gentle¬ 
man paying as much as twenty-five dollars for the services of 
a typewriter, whose time was not as valuable as his own. 


OHAPTEE TWO 


What is the Ralston Health Club? 

^ THE UNION OF MIND AND MATTER 
FIGHTING THE BATTLE OF GREAT IDEAS 
•J* AND LEADING THE RACE ONWARD TO ITS ^ 
GOAL ^ •J* 



• ONEST APPRECIATION of the exact nature of 
this Club should be had at the start, in order that 
those who wish to call themselves Ralstonites 
may feel thoroughly at home in so doing. Be¬ 
fore strangers purchase a copy of the present book they are 
very likely to ask a series of questions, which no doubt include 
all the points suggested in the following inquiries: 

1. What is the Ralston Health Club? 

2. Why is it called a Club? 

3. Is it organized? 

4. Who is at the head of it? 

5. Who are its officers? 

6. Where is its headquarters? 

7. Has it income or property? 

8. Is it a responsible organization? 

9. Has it branches? 

10. Are members made known to each other? 


We will try to answer every question as clearly as possible. 

The Ralston Health Club is the name of a book, the same 
book that is now open before you. For many, many years 
the name has been applied to this book and protected by 
copyright, although the little volume has passed through 



What is The Ralston Health Club? 


17 


scores of editions, taking on new ideas and adding such im¬ 
provements as the times demanded. The same central idea 
has never changed, and never will to the end of the earth. 

A Ralstonite is any person, young or old, who believes in 
taking care of the health. We have hundreds of thousands 
of followers who have written to tell us something like this: 
“ I have seen your book, and wish to say that *1 was a 
Ralstonite long before I ever heard of your Club.” It is a 
common thing to receive a letter from one who never pur¬ 
chased a book of us, but who wishes to be remembered as a 
Ralstonite. 

“Ralston*’ means the best way of living. It is made up 
of seven letters: R for regime or regularity; A for activity or 
the constant use of all the faculties of body, mind and heart 
in perfect balance with each other; L for light and brightness 
of life; S for strength or the full development of the body, 
its organs and faculties; T for temperance or moderation in 
all things so as to avoid excesses; O for oxygen or a much 
larger development of the chest and lungs, for a greater use of 
this element which constitutes nearly ninety per cent of the 
body and the earth; N for nature or a dependence on the 
physical source of all existence. A common saying of 
twenty-seven years ago ran as follows: “ Come with me, 
hand in hand with Nature and with Ralston, and let us drink 
deep of the fountain of life.” It is a partnership with Nature. 

The word HEALTH means: 

1. Freedom from disease for the well. 

2. A tendency toward recovery for the sick. 

3. A wholesome activity of the functions. 

4. A balanced use of all the faculties. 

5. Improvement of the body, mind and soul. 

6. Progress in life. 

7. A clear conscience. 

It will thus be seen that the Ralston Health Club includes 
everything that is wholesome and good in this world. 


18 The Ralston Health Club 

The word “ Club ” is used because a central idea runs 
through Ralstonism that attracts people to it, and holds them 
together in interest. 

The head of the Ralston Health Club is the person who was 
most active in the organization of the private society more 
than twenty-seven years ago, and who has devoted his life to 
the spread of the Ralston doctrines ever since. 

The officers are those men and women in every locality 
who will stand in our places as representatives of the Club. 
We do not believe in concentration of power or authority in 
a work of this kind, which consists in educating the people 
to a new kind of life. Our duty is to teach. Our office is 
merely nominal. Its only honor is hard work without cessa¬ 
tion. But in every city, town, village, and township, the real 
officers of the Ralston Health Club should be found, for there 
they will be in touch with the people, and there they can 
best represent us. To them should come all the honor 
and all the substantial recompense as officers of the organi¬ 
zation. 

The headquarters of the Ralston Health Club will be found 
in the city and country, as evidence of the sincerity of its 
teachings; for city life is refining and educating, while country 
life is far more healthful and inspiring. The United States of 
America is the national home of Ralstonism; although its 
membership extends around the globe and is found in every 
country on earth. 

There are two Ralston Capitals. One is in the most 
beautiful city in the world, the other is in one of the most 
beautiful country locations that God ever blessed with the 
delights of His wonderful creation. When we say ‘‘ Ralston 
Capitals ” we do not wish to convey the idea that we possess 
great buildings and magnificent properties, for we do not. 
No great Ralston wealth has flowed into our coffers. For 
the past seventeen years we have maintained working head¬ 
quarters in the city of Washington, the capital of the nation; 


What is the Ralston Health Club? 


19 


but we have made no attempt at ostentation or display. Our 
life-work is with our members scattered all over the wide 
world; and, in the performance of our duty to them, we have 
sought to minimize our own importance. 

But Ralstonism teaches among its doctrines, that country 
life, out-door air, sweet sunshine, growing flowers, fruits and 
vegetables, and all the blessings of perfect health fresh from 
the hand of nature, may be combined with city conveniences 
and city refinement, even in country homes; and, to prove 
the truth of all this, we have established a Country Capital, 
as noted in another part of the present book. Six months of 
the year we are in our city headquarters; and for the remain¬ 
ing six months we are in our country headquarters. We 
have never believed in theories; we prove our assertions by 
the critical trial of actual experience; hence our claim that 
country life with city advantages must be the ultimate 
destiny of every home is being thoroughly tested for the bene¬ 
fit of our members; and it is our purpose to urge in every 
possible way the establishing of “ Ralston City,” modelled 
after our own beginning, in every county in America. 

The Ralston Health Club is not a tangible organization, 
in the sense as usually understood. To make it so would not 
be possible, until we had branches or local clubs everywhere; 
and these you may assist in forming. But it is an organ¬ 
ization in the sense that a private original club was regularly 
formed for the purposes of investigation and experiment, 
which club consisted of members who became scattered as 
the years rolled on, but who constantly found others who 
were interested in its doctrines until at last it became neces¬ 
sary to print them as the teachings of the Club so that they 
might obtain a wider field of usefulness. 

It can be readily seen that if a few persons were to organize, 
and not admit others, the latter would in fact form no part of 
the Club; while, on the other hand, if all members throughout 
the world were to be admitted into the organization it would 


20 


The Ralston Health Club 


involve the maintenance of branches everywhere. So, in 
order to give each Ralstonite an equal footing in the Club, 
we have refused to allow any tangible organization to exist, 
the proceedings of which could not be enjoyed by all. 

It is a glorious privilege to be a Ralstonite, and to be a 
member of the Ralston Health Club in the form in which it 
has existed for these many years. This book is your guide. 
Reports, Annuals, Greetings and Fellowship Notices are sent 
you as they are issued; and thus you keep in touch with the 
grand work that is going on. This book is your Club. It 
is much better to belong to a general organization, than to be 
compelled to perform duties in one that is merely formal. 

Under these circumstances it is not possible for the Ralston 
Health Club to have income or property or to become a 
trust. It is true that the Club might be used for money¬ 
making purposes, and such use would be perfectly proper and 
praise-worthy; but it has always been the policy of the 
management to allow its receipts to go to the maintenance of 
the Club, the securing of new facts and the improvement of 
its membership. No officer, president or other person has 
ever been paid either salary or profit. Every dollar that is 
received is used to make the Club greater. 

The question is often asked, what is the responsibility of 
the Ralston Health Club? It is fully able to keep all its 
promises to the end of time. It takes pride in offering to 
its progressive members such rewards as are sure to surprise 
them by their value and magnificence; and never once in all 
its years of history has the Club failed to perform any promise 
it has made. This is proof of its responsibility. Its obliga¬ 
tions to each member are heavy, if the temples are entered, 
but these will all be met. 

The last question relates to the introduction of members 
to each other; as the inquiry concerning branches has been 
fully answered. We bind ourselves to every new member 
never to make his or her name known, either in private or 


What is the Ralston Health Club? 


21 


in public, without the written consent of such member; and 
this promise we have never broken. Many persons would 
refuse to join the Club if they thought their names were to 
be used for advertising purposes. 

We have now made answer to every line of inquiry that is 
possible. We have been frank and clear, for we have nothing 
to conceal. All illusions or misconceptions that could arise 
in any form, we seek to dispel in advance. Please remember 
that the greatness of Ralstonism is the good it can accom¬ 
plish among the people everywhere, and not in ourselves or 
in any person or persons at the head of the Club. The 
wonderul increase of membership is due solely to the fact that 
every faithful Ralstonite, by living up to the doctrines taught, 
becomes in time an example of the power that a simple 
regime may have over the weakest as well as over the 
strongest body; and gratitude prevents silence. This is the 
reason why we have never advertised. If our members can¬ 
not speak a good word for the Club, we have no right to the 
patronage of others. 


DEFINITIONS 

1. A Ralstonite is any man or woman who believes in 
taking care of the health. 

2. A Complete Ralstonite is one who has advanced five 
degrees and thus obtained complete membership. 

3. A Progressive Ralstonite is one who advances at least 
one degree a year during life, or as long as the Club brings 
annual benefits to such person. 

4. A Good Ralstonite is one who reads at least a page a 
week in this book of General Membership. 

5. A Faithful Ralstonite is one who lives up to the doc¬ 
trines of this book as far as circumstances permit. 

Note : No member is under obligations to do any of these 
things. All such duties are accepted voluntarily. 


22 


The Ralston Health Club 


6. A Club-number is a number assigned to a Ralstonite at 
the Vitality Degree, which number is accompanied by a 
Certificate of Special Rights and Privileges. It is the only 
way by which a degree member may be known to us or to 
each other. It carries with it a large share of power in the 
Club and among Ralstonites. 

y. A Password is a certain use of the name and date of the 
Ralston Year. 

Ralston Year i began July 4, 1876. 

The twentieth century opened about the middle of Ralston 
Year 25. 

Ralston Year 27 began July 4, 1902. 

This password is given at the Vitality Degree. 

8. Ralston Day is the fourth day of every month. It is 
celebrated in many homes (and has been for a long time), 
with flowers, music, a Ralston dinner and social pleasures. 
Hundreds of thousands of members have pronounced it “ the 
happiest day of the whole month.” 

9. The Vitality Degree is the greatest of the Club, yet 
it is the smallest in one sense. It is the first move of an 
active member. It introduces you to the Vitality Club, a 
special organization that is devoted solely to one thing, and 
one idea; namely, the study of human vitality, and how to 
acquire it. 

Great men tell us that the development of a single idea is 
the most potent process of life; it accomplishes more, for it 
sweeps all else before it, and its results are never in doubt. 

The Vitality Club is the concentration of all the knowl¬ 
edge, all the science and all the skill of the world upon a 
single idea, upon ONE STUDY, and that is the most im¬ 
portant theme in the physical and mental welfare of every 
human being. Without vitality, life is nothing; with vitality, 
it is everything. It is a new and novel thing in human ex¬ 
perience, to devote a great work to a single idea; yet this is 
what is done by the Vitality Club. 


What is the Ralston Health Club? 


23 


At the second degree, which is quickly taken, and should 
be without expense, the Book of the Vitality Club is 
obtainable; and, with it, a Club-number, also the Certificate 
of Special Rights and Privileges. 

The essential value of Ralstonism is the privilege of pro¬ 
gress, of moving on to something better at every stage of the 
journey. Everything done is voluntary. No member is 
asked to make any agreement, and no duties are assigned. 
This freedom seems to inspire Ralstonites to do more for 
themselves, for their families and their communities than they 
would otherwise feel inclined to do if there were fixed obli¬ 
gations. 

Constant improvement, and a never ceasing advance toward 
a higher goal of living, are characteristics of a true Ralstonite; 
and this means a steady rise in the degrees of the Club. 

Our members go on in their degrees without being asked 
so to do. They will go on in spite of us. When a person 
is true to the spirit of the race, the benefits and blessings of 
such an organization cannot be kept selfishly for a few, but 
are cast abroad for all to partake in, as far as they are worthy 
of them. 

As vitality is the foundation of the great work of life, its 
special study is recommended to every man and woman. It 
is our first reward to members. They go on in their degrees 
in spite of us; and we meet them at the threshold with the 
most effective system of development ever prepared. The 
form of procedure is stated at the end of this book. We 
voluntarily reward all efforts of our members. 


Having now fulfilled our promises to answer every inquiry 
sent us, we ask the privilege of closing this part of the 
present work and announcing 

THE END OF THE 

SOCIAL DIVISION 


Ue$innin§ ©f 

THE MEMBERSHIP DIVISION 

OF THE 




OHAPTEE THEEE 


Plan of the Club 

^ THE SAME GENERAL ARRANGEMENT ^ 
^ THAT PREVAILED A QUARTER CENTURY AGO 
^ NOW MARKS THE METHODS OF THE CLUB -i- 
•J- IN ITS RELATIONS WITH ITS MEMBERS 

VERY CHANGE in the onward march of Ralstonism 
R has left the basis of the club the same. This can never 
be different; for it recognizes two classes of 

persons: 

1. Those who do not believe in letting matters take care of 
themselves until sickness comes, and then going to a thou¬ 
sand times more cost and trouble than would have been neces¬ 
sary had they used ordinaiy forsight. These are Class One. 

2. Those who do believe in letting matters take care of 
themselves until sickness comes, and then doing what they 
can to baffle disease and death. These are Class Two. 

Class One makes the gallant fight against disease and death, 
so as not to be surprised by the unexpected approach of the 
enemy. 

Class Two supplies the employment and income of doctors, 
druggists, patent medicine manufacturers, hospitals, nurses, 
and sanitariums. 

Class One saves money every year, no matter how ample 
or humble their means; they are prosperous, happy, progress¬ 
ive and free from suffering. Death calls not at their homes. 

Class Two goes through life in a reverse way, like a cat that 
is dragged across a carpet backwards, clawing all the way. 
They fight hard enough, but are going in the wrong direction. 



26 


The Ralston Health Club 


Every Ralstonite of Class One believes in the Fifteen 
Propositions, in the Creed, and in advancing Degrees. 

The Fifteen Propositions are the guiding rules of life. 

The Creed is the inspiration. 

The Degrees are evidences of a manly and womanly interest 
in the welfare of the race that has done so much for the world. 

The following statements are the fundamental principles of 
our Club. They should be read and considered occasionally, 
as they are valuable guides to the uses and purposes for which 
the physical body was created. They contain a vast amount 
of meaning. We do not recommend steady reading of this 
book, but rather a few minutes daily perusal. Many Ralston- 
ites boast of the fact that they have every day for years, read 
a page or more of their Ralston books. 

To read is to absorb; if the reading is done with a keen 
interest in the subject matter. To absorb is to adopt. This 
is always true. ‘‘What do you do,” asked a man of his 
business partner, “to cause your health to improve so 
rapidly?” “I read a page or so every day from my Ralston 
books. It takes but a minute.” “ Do you mean to say that 
reading will improve the health?” “Yes, for what I read I 
try to adopt in my daily life.” There is the secret. We trust 
that you will discover it; and that you will commence by 
giving attention to this book; and, perhaps, to this part of it. 

THE FIFTEEN PROPOSITIONS. 

1. No human being was created to become the victim of 
disease. 

2. There is but one intended death, and that is the natural 
wearing out of the body in serene and peaceful old age, 
without suffering; a gentle falling asleep. 


Plan of the Club 


27 


3. As history proves that all the faculties may be preserved 
in perfect condition for at least seventy years, every man or 
woman should retain youthful vigor and independence up to 
that age. 

4. As physiology shows that the natural span of life is one 
hundred years, of which twenty years are consumed in grow¬ 
ing, thirty years more in developing, thirty years more in 
maturing, and twenty years in ungrowing, without illness or 
disease, the task of so living is an imperative duty with every 
person. 

5. As every particle of the body is made of the food taken 
into it, the body can be no better than the food so taken. 

6. As the body is constantly undergoing a complete change 
of its material in every part, it must be true that a better body 
can be built by the use of better material. 

7. As a very little care will keep the health perfect, while 
sickness causes trouble, anxiety and expense, it is better to 
prevent disease than to cure it. 

8. As the body’s natural food consists of fourteen elements 
only, any medicines that contain other elements are foreign 
to the body, and, therefore, unnatural. 

9. As sickness and death may bring expense, trouble and 
suffering to others, no person has a right, by wanton careless¬ 
ness and indifference, to invite these misfortunes unneces¬ 
sarily. 

10. As communities are more prosperous where sickness 
least prevails, good citizenship requires that each individual 
shall take an interest in spreading the doctrines of perfect 
health. 

11. The body is a machine capable of abundantly feeding, 
clothing, sheltering, developing, and protecting itself, in order 
that it may exist and be well cared for; but a machine that 
serves no other purpose than to take care of itself and please 
itself accomplishes absolutely nothing by living. 


28 


The Ralston Health Club 


12. As every useful machine serves other purposes than to 
be kept in repair, so man should be greater than his body’s 
needs, and should serve a distinct purpose in living. 

13. This is an age of fearful loss of time and money through 
sickness; and not until disease is conquered will humanity be 
able to understand the grander purposes of creation. 

14. As ill health and misfortune are principally due to indif¬ 
ference, which arises from an inability to cope with the erro¬ 
neous customs, social evils and national wrongs of the present 
day, the highest duty of citizenship is to weave a fabric of 
power strong enough to overcome all such abnormal con¬ 
ditions. 

15. The Ralston Club, having won the permanent loyalty 
and unshakable support of its intelligent and honest mem¬ 
bers in this country, should, when its numbers warrant, exert 
its power as one voice to correct the abuses which prevent 
the enjoyment of happiness, prosperity and health. 

The second qualification whereby a person may become a 
Class-One-Ralstonite is an interest in the Creed. We do not 
ask you to believe in it until you know fully its power; nor 
even then to declare your belief in it. But you must be 
interested in its teachings, or you cannot be considered a 
Class-One-Ralstonite. 

Many of its provisions are new to you and will need explain¬ 
ing. Full light will come in time. This Creed has been the 
inspiration of a vast number of men and women, and has led 
them on to victory in the fight against disease and death. 


CREED OF THE RALSTONITES 

Article I.—We believe in the existence of a life princi¬ 
ple, or vitality, buoyancy, or spiritual energy, which is 
superabundant in good health, and is lacking in sickness, as 
may be seen in the lives of persons; and we believe that it 


Plan of the Club 


29 


dwells in the universe, and may be drawn into the human body 
by an act of the will expressed in certain exercises invented 
for that purpose. 

* 

Article II.—We believe that the absence of vitality is the 
cause of ill-health, and is also caused by ill-health; that, 
during sickness, the buoyancy of the body droops, but returns 
again with the restoration of health; and that vitality, buoy¬ 
ancy, or by whatever name it may be called, is an impelling 
force, which may direct all the impulses of growth and 
development. 

* * * 

Article III.—We believe that (as no scientist has hitherto 
made a special study of this life principle) the ignorance 
of the human race upon this, the most vital fact of existence, 
has much to do with the prevalence of disease, the untimely 
approach of old age and death. 

* * 

Article IV.—We believe that it is possible for man (by 
special study, experiment, and investigation) to learn about 
the LIFE PRINCIPLE OR VITAL SPARK, and to draw it into the 
body, and increase the power of his vitality for the purpose 
of securing health, and prolonging life. 

* ^ 

Article V. —We believe that as a weakened vitality yields 
quickly to disease and death, so a strengthened vitality may 
baffle these monsters for many years, and delay even the 
approach of age. 

^ ^ * 

Article VI.—We believe that sickness is due to one or 
more of the following causes: 


30 


The Ralston Health Club 


I. Inheritance. 2. Carelessness. 3. Ignorance. That medi¬ 
cine is positively injurious, and unnecessary, except in a crisis, 
and even then is only the substitue of one ill for another; 
and that regime for the generation of the life principle 
will give a diseased body a new lease of existence. 

* * 

Article VII.—We believe that the adulteration of food is 
increasing every year at an alarming rate; and is the cause of 
diseases of the liver and kidneys; and that every man and 
woman in America should aid in an organized effort to drive 
these adulterations from the market. 

* 5 ^ * 

Article VIII. — We believe that a knowledge of what is 
the best food for the stomach, and the obtaining of such food 
in a pure state; also the cultivation of habits consistent with 
the laws of health; and the increase of the life principle, 
must and will result in absolutely perfect health, and the pro¬ 
longation of human life far beyond its present duration. 

^ Sfi 

Article IX.—We believe that there are ways of prevent¬ 
ing, and ways of curing, by natural methods, without medi¬ 
cine and without cost, all the ills that “ flesh is heir to,” from 
common headaches and colds, to nearly all. of the great 
incurable diseases, so called. 

ik ill 

Article X. — We believe that every honest physician 
should be willing to encourage the rapid recovery of his 
patient by the aid of nature as found in the Four Cardinal 
Points of Health. 


* Hi * 


Plan of the Club 


31 


Article XI.—We believe heartily and unreservedly that 
the Four Cardinal Points of Health are founded on nature’s 
primeval, permanent, and perfect laws of existence. 

sj; 

Article XII. — We believe that the home is the mother 
of the great moral and social fabric of the nation, of advanced 
civilization, individual prosperity, and national supremacy; 
that HAPPINESS is the father of the home; that health is the 
progenitor of happiness; and, through' nature, that perfect 
health may attend the life of every human being on the face of 
the earth. 


Now compare, if you will, the Fifteen Propositions previ¬ 
ously presented and the Creed as just stated. The former 
introduce the foundation theories of Ralstonism; the latter is 
the moving impulse of its power. What shall be done with 
this Creed? It must be acted upon if health is sought. No 
person of well-balanced faculties goes long in life without 
winning success. If the faculties are not well balanced, there 
is a part of this book that is devoted to the subject that will 
prove abundantly helpful to you. Success and competence 
are more likely to inspire a desire for living, than are poverty 
and failure. 


THE DEGREES. 

Two of the qualifications that will make you a Class-One- 
Ralstonite have been thus far presented. The third and last 
is the spirit of progress shown in Degrees, which means the 
taking of firm steps toward the spread of the doctrines of 
Ralstonism; for no movement that has for its object the up¬ 
lifting of humanity, can do its work without the hearty co¬ 
operation of its members. 


CHAPTER FOUR 


Taking the Degrees 

^ THE MEN AND WOMEN WHO HAVE MADE 
THE WORLD 

^ GROW BETTER, YEAR BY YEAR, IN EVERY ^ 
AGE 

^ ARE THOSE WHOSE GENEROUS HEARTS ^ 
HAVE TURNED TO GIVE 
^ ENCOURAGEMENT TO OTHERS OF THE RACE 

K ALSTONISM embraces, as has been stated in the 
preceding chapter, two classes of members. One 
of these is known as Class Two, or those who 
believe in letting matters take care of themselves, 
and who go through life looking in the direction in which 
they would like to go, but who are being pulled backward in 
the opposite course. 

Class-One-Ralstonites are those who are interested in: 

I. The Fifteen Propositions. 

2. The Creed. 

3. The Degrees. 

The first two of these have been considered in the previous 
chapter. The explanation of the degrees requires a special 
chapter, for they are closely associated with the very life and 
history of Ralstonism. To remove them from the cause of 
health and progress, would be to take away the mainspring 
of its success. 

We are not the originators of the idea of degrees. Many 
years ago, when members began to improve and to win not 


Taking the Degrees 


33 


only perfect health but also success and prosperity in life, 
they tried in every way to induce other persons to join in the 
movement, with the hope of having a universal brotherhood 
of Ralstonites. We listened and did all we could to analyze 
the variety of propositions, so that what might be best for 
the public would be adopted. 

We allowed many members to put their plans into execu¬ 
tion; some of which failed, and others were partly successful. 
In obedience to the wishes of those who had been leaders in 
the spread of the cause, we tried one offer after another, until 
all had been given a chance. 

One who has been a total stranger to us in every way, ex¬ 
cept by club-number, but who has sent in name after name for 
membership writes: I consider it a great privilege to add 

to the membership of the Ralston Club. My own improved 
condition arouses curiosity, and I plainly speak of the good 
I have derived from the Club. This has borne its fruit as you 
know. A word to a friend is all that is necessary.” 

Another writes: ‘‘ I do not like to be rewarded for what I 
know is my plain duty to my fellow beings. As our minister 
has said in his sermons, Ralstonism is secular religion, and it 
is the happy privilege of every earnest member to spread its 
truths. I like to know that I am winning degrees right along, 
for each degree means that I have brought some one else to 
see and to receive the great good of this Club. I shall stop 
bringing in recruits when I die; not before.” 

This has the true ring to it. The pleasant satisfaction of 
knowing that each degree stands for someone whose life has 
been uplifted by the aid of Ralstonism, is not to be excelled 
by any form of happiness that this world can give. 

And so on, through a long list of expressions from many 
thousands of the truest members, we find that the one desire 
is to have someone else share the fruits of these benefits. 
This feeling is necessary to the existence of the cause, or of 
any cause. 

3 


34 


The Ralston Health Club 


On the other hand, there are some who think that the 
desire for the increase of membership is a selfish one. They 
think the same thing when a church seeks to enlarge its num¬ 
bers, or the schools and universities make efforts to extend 
their influence, or any good cause is reaching out to bless 
more people. They will always think that, for it is in the 
blood. The cynic sees good in nothing, and selfishness in 
everything; and is the unhappiest of mortals. 

Were it not for the doctrine of increase and extension of 
influence, there would be no progress in the world, not even 
in the realm of nature. God commanded increase, and every 
good impulse of the human heart responds to the mandate. 
Increase is the great duty of Ralstonites. 

This is frank. It is honest and to the point. Without 
the desired increase, we must always remain a scattered and 
ineffectual band, having a good motive without coherency 
and united strength. And it is gratifying to state that all 
true Ralstonites have just as much of a desire to see the Club 
increase as we have. The man who is a stranger to the cause 
today, is converted to its principles tomorrow, and the next 
day he says to himself, all unknown to us, that he will give 
every honest and honorable effort to the spread of the doc¬ 
trines; for he finds them to be right and full of blessings to 
humanity. 

What is the past history of this feeling? At the beginning 
when one room would hold every member, they thought of 
others as soon as they did of themselves; and this was when 
there was no book for sale, and no cost of membership. That 
is true of Ralstonism; the wish to get others interested; and 
nothing else can be substituted for this feeling. 

Then, in after years, when all the wonderful doctrines and 
helps were written out and made into a code, such as you see 
in this book now open before you, and the members were 
getting numerous, they did not have a book that was printed, 
and there was nothing to sell them; so that the motive of 


Taking the Degrees 


35 


increase could not be called mercenary; they came to head¬ 
quarters and asked the privilege of having stenographers and 
typewriters copy the written things that had been the means 
of doing so much good; and they paid many, many dollars 
for much less material than is in the half of this book; and no 
one gained by the transaction except the copyists who were 
brought in and were strangers to us all. 

Yet the very men and women who paid them were strangers 
also to the cause a few months before; they had been led to 
take an interest in it by what they had been told, and they 
found it so valuable that the price of twenty-five dollars or 
even fifty, would not have barred them from getting the 
information in compact form where it could be easily referred 
to and used. 

We cite these early instances to show that there has always 
been a disposition on the part of every earnest Ralstonite to 
tell to others what has been brought home to the life and heart 
of each one. This feeling has been made too much of in a 
commercial sense of late years; and, instead of allowing each 
member to go ahead voluntarily and without, hope of reward, 
there has been a financial or monetary value held out as an 
inducement to advance degrees. 

This is what we have objected to. But what are we to do. 
Some years ago a man turned twenty thousand dollars over 
to the Club for the purpose of printing and giving away the 
great emoluments of the early degrees; that is in the first five, 
ten or fifteen. Other members still insist that it is the proper 
thing to do. Several clergymen went so far as to say that 
there must be some reward for every good deed, and that 
earning a degree by bringing a new member into the Club was 
certainly a good deed: just as, in a much grander sense, the 
hope of eternal happiness is the reward held out for the church 
member. These ideas were expressed by several clergymen, 
each independent of the other, thus showing the trend of 
thought in the matter. 


36 


The Ralston Health Club 


We cannot say that they have converted us to believe that 
we should promise to keep up the emolument system now in 
vogue. Why a member will not speak the good word now as 
of yore, without hope of being paid for it, we cannot see. 
They do speak that word, and they will in spite of everything 
we might do. There would be just as many new members 
brought into the Club if we spent ten millions a year, or spent 
nothing at all; for the true Ralstonites will tell the good 
news whether we asked them to do so or not. 

One fact cannot be overlooked by one who may be disposed 
to take the selfish view of the whole subject. This fact is that 
the Club began to increase from.the start twenty-seven years 
ago; it has passed through countless vicissitudes; it has been 
the subject of discussion in magazines, books and papers, 
and has been thoroughly analyzed by men of science and the 
deepest learning, and never found wanting. Every kind of 
criticism has been made, and all has turned to the favorable 
view. 

While all this public glare has fallen on the Club, it has been 
steadily increasing; editors and high officials all through the 
land, and all over the world, have come into the Club in order 
to get health or to be able to keep sickness and death from 
their doors. Those men and women everywhere who are 
capable of being true to any cause or to any principle, have 
proved the staunchest friends of Ralstonism, and a landslide 
of adversity to the Club could never shake them from their 
loyalty. 

A steady increase has been going on. 

Year by year has witnessed the steadfastness of those mem¬ 
bers who are worthy of the blessings they receive; and year by 
year they have kept bringing the good news to others who 
have joined them in the greatest secular cause now on earth. 

The use of rewards has proved of one advantage to the 
Club, and this is the yearly sifting out of those who came 
in for nothing but selfish purposes; for, when they have got 


Taking the Degrees 


37 


all that was coming to them, they have ceased to do anything 
for the cause; and some there are who have tried to make 
the emoluments merely a business of commercialism out of 
which they have tried to extract all the honey and leave only 
the comb for their friends, and ill-natured criticism for their 
benefactors. We are glad to state that these are few in num¬ 
ber compared with those who have shown only the loyal and 
hearty support that comes from every unselfish Ralstonite. 
It takes all kinds, however, to make up the sum total of 
humanity. 

We have not thought that there should be one place of 
headquarters only, nor one head-management for the Club; 
as it ought to be governed by its members rather than the 
publishers of its books and those behind them. It is time 
now to extend the government of the Club to all its mem¬ 
bers by local organizations; and this plan is to be oflered for 
the first time in the present book. 

Having spoken fully and freely on the subject of constant 
increase we will close this chapter by repeating that every 
true Ralstonite will help to make the cause known to others. 

Without increase there can be no goal for Ralstonism. 

Such increase as we must eventually have in order to shape 
the physical destinies of the great Caucasian race, we may get 
gradually in the course of the next five or ten years; but that 
increase could be attained at this time, and in this very year, 
if every present member tried to do in one month what can 
be done as well in that time as in ten years; namely bring 
ten million new members into the Club. Noi one can deny 
the advantages to the people from such an increase; for it 
would bring on at once the method of living and the era of 
good things which will be found so fully described in the 
new book entitled “ Real Life When Things Are Right.” 
Every reader of that book knows that such an age will come 
sooner or later; and that the sooner it comes, the better it 
will be for the race and for all the earth. 


38 


The Ralston Health Club 


No member is required to help increase the number of 
Ralstonites. 

Every act in that direction must be voluntary and must 
spring from the good will and inherent nature of the member. 

You may or may not find new recruits. All remains with 
you to decide one way or the other; but if you have the 
desire to do so, and this is ever present in your life, and you 
are loyal to the Club, you will be rated a Class-One-Ralston- 
ite, whether you ever get a new member or not. 

This is fair to you. All we wish is to know that you have 
the disposition to help spread the good news to others. 

The present book is the best we have ever issued for General 
Membership; and will be the means of aiding you in making 
converts to Ralstonism much faster than any work ever before 
written or printed. 

There are Invitations also, which we send out to those 
who ask for them; and we shall be glad to supply you with all 
that you can use. 

Equipped with these two aids, you ought to be able to rise 
rapidly to the highest degree which is the one hundredth. 
But, if such is not convenient, or if you cannot bring new 
members in at all, and yet have the disposition so to do, you 
are to be regarded as a Class-One-Ralstonite nevertheless. 

The rewards spoken of, and which exceed in value ^nd 
greatness any training systems ever invented, are those which 
we have partly listed on page 40; presenting five great emolu¬ 
ments therein. Some members go forward the whole hundred 
degrees at once; some advance to the thirtieth so that they 
may be sure of “Real Life” at once; others go to the fifth 
degree and thus get into Complete Membership; others will 
undoubtedly take the shortest and easiest of all, the VITAL¬ 
ITY DEGREE, and not be able to go further for a year or 
more, if ever. 

This is sufficient. It shows the disposition and desire to do 
something, as far as it is possible. There is no nobler thing in 


TAKfNG TJTE DkgrICES 


39 


human life than loyally to some cause that is helpful to the 
race. 

On the accompanying page is found the full system of the 
first twenty degrees. These constitute the first great leniple, 
which is known as the Temple of the Tody. Other tenii)les, 
just as sumptuous, follow u]) to the highest degree which is 
the one hundredth, '^fhese degrees are easily taken, and con¬ 
sist in getting a new recruit for each one of them. That is, 
if you get a person to take memhershi]) in the Club, or procure 
a copy of this book of General Membership, you advance a 
degree. The use of the Invitations will effect this very 
cfuickly, if they are sent out judiciously, or handed to persons 
whom you may know or whose addresses you have. If sent 
out carelessly they may not do any good at all. 

The first emolument or reward is reached at the Second 
degree; the next is obtained at the fifth degree; the next at 
the tenth degree; the next at the fifteenth degree; and the 
highest emolument in the Temple of the Body,” is reached 
at the twentieth degree. The “ stars ” indicate the magnitude 
of the rewards. 

The small sum of one dollar which is asked for each degree, 
including the copy of General Membership book which goes 
with it, enables the Club to maintain its existence financially, 
and no more. The expenses are heavy, and the progress that 
is constantly being made is such as to drain the coffers. 

For this, as well as for the other reason that members are 
glad willingly to bring new recruits into the Club, we do not 
believe that the great emolument system should l)e continued; 
and it may be withdrawn after one year’s notice to each mem¬ 
ber. 

As it stands at the present time, it is a splended reward and 
recognition for the interest which the members take in 
spreading the doctrines of Ralstonism. 

The forms for advancing degrees are given at the end of 
the book. 


40 


The Ralston Health Club 


THE RALSTON CLUB 

INCLUDES 

Great Temples of Kno^ledgey 

THE FIRST OF WHICH IS THE 

Temple of the Body/^ 


THIS COMPRISES TWENTY DEGREES AS FOLLOWS; 



BASIS : The present Book of General Membership. 

1st DEGREE: First step toward “ Complete Membership.” 

2nd DEGREE : “ The Vitality Club.” 


* 


3rd DEGREE : 
4th DEGREE : 


5th DEGREE: “Ralston Gardens of Life.” 


The first five degrees constitute Complete Mem¬ 
bership, or the fight against sickness, disease and 
death. 





6th DEGREE 
7th DEGREE 
8th DEGREE 
9th DEGREE 


lOth DEGREE: “Cultivation of the Chest.” ^ 


These five degrees, 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10, are devoted 
to the development, enhancing and beautifying 
the chest, which is the seat of life and of the soul. 
The course of training renders lung diseases and 
consumption impossible. 


11th DEGREE 
13th DEGREE 
13th DEGREE 
14th DEGREE 


These five degrees, 11, 12, 13, 14 and 15, consti¬ 
tute the grandest course of personal training 
ever invented for perfecting the body and giving 
full power to all its physical faculties. 


15th DEGREE: “Personal Culture.” 


★ 


16th DEGREE 
17th DEGREE 
18th DEGREE 
19th DEGREE 


20th DEGREE: “Ralston Citadel.” 

End of the Temple of the Body. 


These five degrees, 16, 17, 18, 19 and 20, furnish 
the climax of the “ Temple of the Body,” in those 
supreme personal accomplishments that bring 
social power and leadership to every earnest man 
and woman. 












INITIATION 

INTO THE 

RALSTON HEALTH CLUB 


While the Ralston Club embraces one hundred degrees, 
the branch of it which is known as the Ralston Health Club 
includes only the first five. These begin with the basis, or 
the present copy of the Book of Initiation, which is also 
called the Book of General Membership; and they proceed as 
far as the fifth degree. 

At the second degree the first reward is reached. This is 
the new system known as the VITALITY CLUB. It is 
given absolutely free to the member at that degree. 

At the fifth degree the much greater emolument, entitled 
“Ralston Gardens of Life,” will be found; and this ends the 
Ralston Health Club system. The rewards given beyond 
are simply splendid works and systems, that have been justly 
called the best things that have ever been published, and that 
stand without a parallel in modern times. This seems like 
strong praise; but you will do, as others have done, give full 
assent to the good words when you have seen what the works 
and systems are. Ralstonism has never done things by 
halves. 

It costs nothing to be initiated into the Club. 

All you have to do is to sign the Application Notice for 
Initiation which is given at this place in duplicate; one copy 
remaining in the book, so that you may always know what it 
is, and the other being taken out and mailed to Ralston Club, 
Washington, D. C. 

STANDING NUMBER. 

When you send in the Application Notice for Initiation, 
you may request a Standing Number, if you wish. This 
costs nothing. It is called a Standing Number for it stands 
until you begin to advance degrees; when a Club-number is 


42 


The Ralston Health Club 


given you instead, which will remain permanent for a life time. 
None of these costs anything. Everything is free from charge. 

If, however, you wish to begin now to advance degrees, you 
can fill out the lower part of the Application Notice, in 
addition to the main part, and enclose the cost of two copies 
of this Book of General Membership. Thereupon the re¬ 
ward will be free admission into the VITALITY CLUB. / 

This step should be taken within thirty days from the time 
when you receive this book either from us or from some mem¬ 
ber; for quick action is necessary to enable the Club to carry 
on its great work. The two Coupons for which you pay one 
dollar each, ought not to cost you anything; for, if you give 
them away as presents to your friends, they will insist on 
paying you for them, for that is one of the fundamental prin¬ 
ciples of the Club that there shall be no free members. Yet we 
leave that for them to decide. Out of every thousand of 
those who receive the book as a gift from some friend, fully 
999 P^y them, not because the money is required or needed, 
but merely to enable them to come in line with all Ralstonites, 
and not receive something for nothing. 

In addition to the satisfaction of making two new members, 
you will also find the two-dollar emolument, the VITALITY 
CLUB, awaiting you. This, like all emoluments, is presented 
as an expression of good will from the Club, and is not the 
subject of contract. 

While the form for making the advance in degrees is given 
here, and another is given at the end of this book, it is really 
not necessary to use any form at all for degrees after the 
fifth; as a degree is allowed you for each Coupon- or book of 
General Membership which you procure after your own. This 
copy, being the first, does not advance you any degree; as it 
is for your own use, and not for some new member whom 
you have procured. 

If this form is not used when the first emolument is applied 
for, or if the form at the end of the present book is not used 


Initiation into the Ralston Health Club 


43 


when the fifth degree emolument is applied for, then 'the re¬ 
wards cannot be given; for our only evidence that you own 
this book is in the page that is taken from it. 

The full page Application Notice for Initiation should be 
cut out carefully with the small blade of a sharp knife, just at 
the left of the reading matter. If this full page Application 
Notice is absent from the book, then some person has taken 
advantage of you and sold you a defective copy, which has 
been used by such person as a means of advancing degrees so 
as to obtain valuable emoluments without cost. You must 
see the person, rectify the fraud, and report the name and 
number to us, so that in the future all good Ralstonites will 
cease to affiliate with the individual. 

We are glad to state that this has not happened more than 
a few times in the whole history of the Club; and we have 
the names of the persons who have sold copies from which 
the essential forms have been taken. Yet a thoughtless 
person might do so through an innocent mistake; but they 
immediately get a perfect copy, and retain the defective one 
for personal use. 

This copy is perfect if it has the Application Notice of 
Initiation at the end of this chapter, which is a full page form. 
When you remove it, you must keep the copy for your own 
use, and for reference: not to loan or give away. It must 
become your private property at once. True Ralstonites 
take pride in keeping the first book as a private landmark in 
the history of their lives as members of the Club. 

The Contents of the Application Notice are printed here 
so that you may know what it contained. The first clause 
declares that you are the rightful owner of the Book of 
General Membership from which the notice has been taken. 
The next declares that you are interested in the Fifteen 
Propositions, and in the Creed of the Ralstonites. The next 
says: “ I believe that the increase-system is necessary to the 
success of any great movement, and for that reason I am 


44 


The Ralston Health Club 


heartily in accord with the degree-plan of this Club. Having 
thus shown my sympathy for the cause, and hoping to see 
the blessings of health, happiness and home spread broad¬ 
cast throughout the world, I hereby ask to have my name 
enrolled among the Ralstonites, with the understanding that 
no duties of any kind shall devolve upon me except such as 
I may voluntarily assume for the good of the cause.” Then 
comes the request for a Standing Number. 

The request for the Standing Number should be erased if 
you fill out the lower part of the notice, which is an advance 
of two degrees and an application for the Vitality Club book; 
for the Club-number which you will receive at the Second 
degree will be permanent for all time; while the Standing 
Number will not be good after you begin to advance degrees. 

All emoluments are given to members for their exclusive 
use. In almost every family of good Ralstonites, each mem¬ 
ber, even including those who are in their teens, is a fifth- 
degree Ralstonite; for parents declare that they can leave no 
better heritage to their children than Complete Membership 
in a Club whose great life work is to hold disease and misfor¬ 
tune from the door. Some of these are gifts, but most of 
them are obtained by getting new recruits to the cause. 

Former members, or those who already have any degrees 
may obtain VITALITY CLUB by advancing two degrees 
beyond where they now are. All degrees acquired will be 
preserved, and no one need start anew. 

Coupons are good for copies of this book of General Mem¬ 
bership; one Coupon being good for one copy. We sell 
Coupons for one dollar each; and the other ten cents is paid 
when Coupon is sent in for the book. We never send copies 
of this book of General Membership unless we have the name 
and full address of the new members who are to own them. 
If such names are known to you in advance, send them and 
their fulRaddresses, and $i.io each, and books of General 
Membership will be forwarded in place of Coupons. 


Cut this out carefully at left hand edge and mail to Ralston Club, Washington, D. C. 


ilPPLIC^TION NOTICE 

FOR 

INITIATION 

IN THE 

GREAT RALSTON CLUB 


To Ralston Club, 

1223 to 1231 G St, Washington, D. C. 

I am the rightful owner and sole user of the copy of the Book of General 
Membership from which this page is taken. 

I am interested in the Fifteen Propositions, and in the Creed of the Ral- 
stonites. 

I believe that the increase-system is necessary to the success of any great 
movement, and for that reason I am heartily in accord with the degree-plan 
of this Club. 

Having thus shown my sympathy for the cause, and hoping to see the 
blessings of health, happiness and home spread broadcast throughout the 
world, I hereby ask to have my name enrolled among the Ralstonites, with 
the understanding that no duties of any kind shall devolve upon me except 
such as I may voluntarily assume for the good of the cause. 

I wish a Standing Number until such time as I may ask for a Club-number. 

[Name]. 

[P. O.]. 

[State]. 

Street and number, 

or P. O. Box, if any. 

DO NOT CUT THIS PAGE IN TWO. 

[If you wish to be rated as a Class-One-Ralstonite, fill out the following in addition to the above ] 

I also wish to be a Class-One-Ralstonite, and enclose two dollars for two 
COUPONS good for two copies of this Book of General Membership, for which 
I will find two new members as soon as I can; and I shall be pleased to 
receive, as a reward, the book of the VITALITY CLUB, which is the 
emolument of the second degree. I do this with the understanding that, 
on paying three dollars more at any time, I may advance to the fifth degree, 
become a Complete Member, and obtain as an emolument the work entitled 
“ Ralston Gardens of Life.” All emoluments I receive I will keep exclu¬ 
sively for my own use, or for the use of my family. 

I have signed my name and full address above and again sign my name 
here. 


EITHER PART OF THIS PAGE IS VOID IF WHOLE PAGE IS NOT SENT 










CHAPTER FIVE 


Local Clubs 

FROM HOME TO HOME THE HERALD GOES ^ 
•J* AND BRINGS THE GLAD NEWS WITH HIM 
AND MEN AND WOMEN CONGREGATE ^ 
TO HEAR THE WORD HE’S BRINGING 

LTHOUGH the past history of the Ralston Club has 

/1 \ shown the wisdom of holding its great doctrines 
/\\\ exclusive use of its faithful members, this 

^ ^ ^ does not militate against the idea of bringing 

together in helpful assemblies as many of those members as 
care to be thus associated. 

We believe that the time has come when it is proper to trjrn 
over to the banded and united Ralstonites of the world, the 
control and management of this Club, and to effect a strong 
and enduring organization to that end. 

The first steps to be taken require a sufficient number of 
members who believe as we do. They may be found every¬ 
where; or, if there are not now enough, more may be 
quickly -added to the enrollment and a full number be oli- 
tained. 

It is not necessary for any member to unite with a local 
organization, or to assist in banding Ralstonites together. 
Many are always asking for the authority to do this, and we 
have delayed complying with their request for three reasons. 
Some years ago there were local clubs all through the land, 
and most of them were used by drummers and merchants who 
had foods and other articles to sell. They would even go 
to the trouble of effecting a large organization, and then work 


48 


The Ralston Health Club 


among the members until they had established a trade in their 
goods; often under our name and with the claim that we had 
given them the encouragement to do so. This we never 
did. 

Then others would organize local clubs and conceal the fact 
that they were agents of food-concerns, >vhich they would 
proceed to endorse; and many articles of food and wearing 
apparel, got endorsements from the Ralston Club, but not 
our Club. This was clearly illegal and even criminal; and 
they desisted. But many false endorsements are used at this 
day by dishonest business houses. 

Then there were some who pretended to be specially 
learned in the Ralston doctrines, who had but little real 
knowledge, and-they used the local clubs for lecturing and 
teaching, in the hope of making a reputation that would call 
them to the lyceum platform. 

Of the vast number of local clubs that existed years ago, 
hardly one per cent of them were free from the name- 
collectors; or people who, under pretence of being author¬ 
ized by us to make census, went about getting the names 
and addresses of Ralstonites, and then flooded their homes 
with advertising material for years to follow. 

One woman wrote to us as if we had given her name away; 
for she said: “I understand that the Ralston Club never 
allows the names and addresses of its members to be given 
away; and yet I received a notice from an advertiser this 
morning stating that my name had been given to him 
because I was a prominent Ralstonite.” Investigation 
proved that she had given her own name away a few weeks 
before to a man who had called on her for the ostensible 
purpose of taking a census of the Ralstonites in her locality. 
She gave her own name and those of over two hundred 
others in the place. 

The rule is this and it ought to be remembered: We never 
allow the name of any member to be known to any person, 


Local Clubs 


49 


unless we have the written authority of that member. This 
we never ask, and we do not think it wise to make public the 
names, for it keeps many of the very prominent people in the 
world out of the Club. Hence we keep the terms of the 
agreement with more than usual care. 

We have no agents and no representatives. Any claim that 
we do is fraudulent. All authority of any kind issued by us 
comes solely from Washington, and is in our writing; and is 
also published in full in our books where all may read and 
know it. We say this to let our members know that they 
must look to us and not to others, for the facts. Do not be 
misled into the belief that we have census takers, or that we 
give endorsements for foods or other articles; for such claims 
are not true. 

Never allow any person to take the names and addresses 
of members for any purpose. We have given this notice 
many times and it has been heeded. Do not try to get the 
names of members by public announcements for meetings or 
for any other purpose; and, if such notices are given, do not 
pay any attention to them. In a city where we have five 
thousand members, and where this notice had been well 
understood, some one inserted an advertisement in the papers 
rather freely, to the effect that all Ralstonites would meet at 
a public hall on a certain evening, by order of the Club at 
Washington; thus putting the burden on us; but the hall was 
almost empty, as only three responded and they came out of 
curiosity. This was a well deserved rebuke. 

A local club may be founded by any select number of 
people, all of whom are congenial to each other. Some 
would wish to be with their friends; and this is right. You 
may have certain friends whom you would wish to be with, 
and others may have their preferences as well. 

To found a club there must be five persons who are all of 
the fifth degree; that is, who are complete members. They 
are known as the founders. As nearly all Ralstonites who 


4 


50 


The Ralston Health ClXjb 


are of the Class-One rating, become fifth degree members, 
and they are the only ones who take an interest in the better 
things of the world, it would be a very easy matter to found 
such a club in any locality. Those who are not advanced to 
the fifth degree would not be benefited by belonging to such a 
club, and would be of no value to it. The great battle of 
Ralstonism is against sickness and death; and all the knowl¬ 
edge than can be obtained should be at hand. 

But, while all the founders must be fifth degree members, 
any others who are invited to join may be of a lower degree, 
provided they are at least in the Vitality Course which is at 
the second degree. 

There must be not less than five fifth-degree Ralstonites in 
the beginning; all of whom are known as founders. Any 
others may be invited to join, but the vote must be unanimous 
that admits them; and they must be at least in the Vitality de¬ 
gree. This is the summary of the whole matter. 

There may be as many local clubs as are desired, if they are 
organized under the above provisions. No person should 
wait to be invited to join any one, for the membership in each 
may be very small. If you wish to become a local member, 
do not seek an invitation in a club that may already be full, 
but start one yourself. 

Each club will have its founder as a permanent officer 
and its president and other officials. The presidents of 
all the local clubs in one place are to meet on call for the 
purpose of electing a county president; and all the county 
presidents are to meet on call to elect a State president. The 
State presidents are to elect a national president. 

A local club must contain not less than five members; if 
it wishes to have more, they may be added by unanimous 
vote from time to time; but large numbers are not advisable, 
at least in one club. There is to be no fixed time for meeting; 
but each session may adjourn to meet again when called by 
the Executive. It is not possible to secure a regular attend- 


Local Clubs 


51 


ance at stated intervals. The knowledge that there is a local 
organization to which you belong, and which may be called 
from time to time when its services may be of advantage to 
the cause in general or to the community, is suifhcient to 
hold an interest; and the club may have an annual meeting at 
which all may pledge themselves to be present. 

The members must be known to have no interest, direct 
or indirect, in any foods or articles that are offered for sale; 
nor must they be actuated by selfish motives in joining the 
local club. 

No fees are to be charged, nor contributions solicited; as 
the membership must be free. 

When any five members of the fifth-degree ask for a Consti¬ 
tution, and Charter, and send us the following request, we 
will send the same free of charge: To Ralston Club of 
America, 1223 to 1231 G Street, Washington, D. C. We 
the undersigned are members of the Ralston Club, and are 
of the fifth degree or complete rank. We wish to found a 
local club in this place to be known as the First Ralstonites 
of ; and request a Charter and Consti¬ 

tution with which to affect such organization. (Names must 
follow with full addresses and Club-numbers.) 

The name of the Club will be “The Ralstonites 

of .” The blank at the beginning is to be filled out 

with the number of the local club; just as national banks take 
the name First, Second, etc., in each city or town where they 
are organized. Thus the club that is earliest organized in 
Boston would be called “ The First Ralstonites of Boston,” 
and the next would be called “ The Second Ralstonites of 
Boston,” and the next would be called “ The Third Ralston¬ 
ites of Boston,” and so on for a thousand or more. 

The name “ Club ” must not be attached to any local organ¬ 
ization, for that belongs to the whole membership which is 
known as “ The Ralston Club of America.” When all those 
who wish to enter into local organizations, are banded to- 


52 The Ralston Health Club 

gether throughout the globe, they will be known as “The 
United Ralstonites of the World.” 

You may or may not find it worth your while to join some 
local club in your community. If they are not to meet 
regularly, you may think it waste of time and effort. But 
the fact is, it will probably prove a very great blessing to you 
and to the community to have such a club there, and possibly 
a hundred or more, depending on the size of the place. The 
fact that they do not meet regularly will not detract from 
their influence and usefulness; for they are ready to meet on 
call whenever the emergency arises, and there is no reason 
otherwise for the taking of time and effort to come together. 

It is a pleasant thing to know that you are one of an associ¬ 
ation that may do much good from time to time among your 
people. It costs nothing. There are no dues, no fees, no 
expense, no duties. An occasional social gathering on the 
fourth of the month, which is Ralston Day, may tend to hold 
you and your friends in the bonds of fellowship, and at the 
same time illustrate some of the methods of living according 
to these doctrines. 

On every Ralston Day do something to celebrate the oc¬ 
casion. Have a special dinner. Get some flowers. Take 
an interest in the idea. Invite friends to meet you at home. 
Know the calendar; that is, be able to state what the Ralston 
Year is, also the total date, the number of the Ralston Days 
that have occurred, counting July 4, 1876 as the first, and 
twelve each year thereafter, arid your age as a Ralstonite. 

Do not lose your Club-number when you get it. Write it 
in a dozen places rather than forget what it is. 

All that is for you to decide. But the time may come 
when the sudden call to meeting will be heard all over the 
land, and a great work be accomplished. 


END OF THE MEMBERSHIP DIVISION 


ge^inninj ef 

THE KNOWLEDGE DIVISION 


OF THE 



OHAPTEE SIX 


Relation of Life and Death to Diets and 
Foods 

INTRODUCTORY CONSIDERATIONS 

K ALSTONITES have long ago learned that in every 
one thousand cases of disease, exactly looo are 
due to what enters the stomach. A careless, hap- 
hazard reader would at once challenge this state¬ 
ment, and say it is not so. In order to ascertain if it is true 
or not, we must remember that death and physical ills are 
chargeable to three sets of causes: 

I. Accident. 

2. Wearing Out. 

3. Disease. 

An accident is almost always due to carelessness; but not 
always. Of all the cases that have occurred where life, limb 
or health has been lost by accident, fully ninety-eight percent 
might have been prevented by extreme care. Some day 
humanity will exercise such care; but today they are not pre¬ 
pared to do so, owing to the disposition to take chances. All 
bacterial maladies are not diseases. Thus lockjaw or tetanus 
is due to the accident of puncturing the hand or foot. 
Hydrophobia is due tO' the accident of a bite. Blood poison¬ 
ing is due to the accident of a cut or scratch. Yet all three 
are different forms of attack from three entirely different 
kinds of germs. Diet has nothing to do with them. Ex¬ 
treme care may prevent them all, by making the causes 
impossible. 


Relation of Life and Death to Diets and Foods 55 

‘‘ Wearing Out” is the way to die, and the only right way. 
It should be brief and decisive, following the manner of living 
set forth in the fifth degree book, “ Ralston Gardens,” and the 
thirtieth degree book, “ Real Life.” A long, slow process 
of “ Wearing Out ” is unnatural. There are men and women 
living today who are past eighty, and a few past ninety, who 
are in full possession of all their faculties; and some of them 
are capable of a great deal of hard physical work. 

The Ralston way to die is to omit the period of decrepitude. 
This is done by keeping the faculties at their best all through 
life, beginning just as soon as you become a Ralstonite, and 
continuing through many decades until the end is at hand; 
then falling asleep quietly and quickly, with loved ones about 
you, and with farewells made in full consciousness of the 
approaching change. The eyes close to the scenes of earth; 
and, in what is a seeming instant only, they open at once 
to find the loved ones all there in a new realm. The process 
involved is fully described and demonstrated in the Ralston 
Classics at the Temple of Mortality, in the highest degrees of 
this Club. The only point of interest in this book is the fact 
that perfect health will carry you through a life of richest 
usefulness, clear up to the final sleep, without compelling you 
to pass under the rod of senile decrepitude. 

This alone is worth a thousand times the slight sacrifice 
of time, trouble and expense which you may imagine is 
required of one who seeks to become a member of the 
Ralston Health Club. 

Having thus disposed of the two preliminary subjects, we 
are now free to consider the relation of food to disease. 
Under the latter term we include what is known as sickness, 
whether acute, chronic, mild, severe, or whatever it is called. 
There are so many kinds of sickness that it would require 
many great volumes to treat of them; yet all of them are 
caused by what enters the stomach. 


56 


The Ralston Health Club 


Now someone says this cannot be so; they declare that 
such maladies as typhoid, consumption, diphtheria, cholera, 
yellow-fever, small-pox, heart-failure, pneumonia, kidney 
trouble, rheumatism, colds, influenza, and the like, are in no 
way related to what enters the stomach. Our answer is that 
typhoid cannot possibly be caused in any other way; con¬ 
sumption is impossible to a person whose vitality exceeds 
sixty degrees, and the same is true of diphtheria, cholera, yel¬ 
low-fever, small-pox, pneumonia, colds, influenza and all con¬ 
tagious diseases as well as all maladies that are due to ex¬ 
posure; heart-failure is the penalty of wrong eating; kidney 
troubles are poisons inflicted by a wrong diet; and rheumatism 
has no other cause except what enters the stomach, although 
it is discovered by dampness and colds. 

There is a distinction between the presence of a malady and 
its discovery. A person may have Bright’s Disease for 
months or even years, and may never have the slightest evi¬ 
dence of it, until a cold or other excitant may make it evident; 
and, in very many instances, when it is thus discovered it is 
too late to save the life. 

It is a familiar saying that pneumonia will make known 
every latent ill of the body. If you should be afflicted with 
this malady, and at the time of your attack you also were 
the victim of Bright’s Disease the presence of which you had 
never suspected, the latter would come to the front and would 
settle the question of life or death in the case of the pneu¬ 
monia. The same is true if you are subject to heart disease; 
and the weakness of this organ has been the turning point in 
many such a case. 

While it is true that air when fresh, pure and vital, is one of 
the most potent factors in the cause of health, it is equally 
true that the best of air is helpless when the body is not well 
nourished by the best of food. If you put nothing in the 
stomach you will not thrive on pure air. If you put unwhole¬ 
some food in the stomach, fresh air will not make it whole- 


Relation of Life and Death to Diets and Foods 57 

some; yet millions of invalids today are abusing the body by 
what they eat, and are trying every kind of natural cure 
without avail. Says one, “ I am careful not to catch cold, nor 
expose myself, and I get fresh air, pure water and exercise; 
but I do not gain in health.” Why not? Because the bill 
of fare is most horrible. 

There are many persons of weak lungs who are striving 
to strengthen them. How? By everything possible that is 
beneficial, except diet. They even cry out impatiently and 
ask, what relation has the contents of the stomach to the 
lungs? The relation is this: There is not a particle, a fiber or 
bit of tissue of the lungs that is not made by the food eaten. 
Medicine will not make it. Fresh air, exercise and all such 
excellent aids to health are unable to create lungs; for they 
are slaves to diet, and they cannot make something out of 
nothing. 

The heart was once food in the stomach; and its quality 
cannot be good if that food was bad. The skin was once 
food in the stomach. The blood, every drop of it, came from 
the contents of the stomach; and now tell us what is to be 
gained by medicines and treatment in building up the blood 
when the basis of its construction is wrong? Since it is 
changing and dying every day, is it not far more sensible to 
employ new materials of a proper kind than to keep using 
those that are incapable of making pure blood. 

If you wish a healthy body you must give it healthy 
materials. If you wish a strong house, the materials must be 
suitable. The hardest proposition for the public mind to 
accept seems to be right here in this rule of nature. Some¬ 
thing is the product of something; the result produced is 
controlled by the quality of the materials employed. When 
people will believe that every part of the body was once food 
in the stomach, they will understand the folly of taking 
foreign matter, such as medicines, in the hope of repairing 
the injury done by an unwholesome diet. 


S8 


The Ralston Health Club 


The extremes are not the best. Some persons when they 
find that a reform in their eating produces happier conditions 
in their health, fly into the habit of becoming exact. They 
almost go so far as to measure what they eat and drink. This 
is not right. It would require a very uniform life to warrant 
exactitude in eating and drinking. 

There is always the best health when the extremes are 
avoided. Do not be too careful. Do not be reckless. If 
you are actually *sick, your degree of care must be greater 
than when you are well. We have no liking for the crank 
in matters of health. There is a wide margin for all persons 
who are not invalids; and this margin permits a great elas¬ 
ticity in habits of eating. If this were not so, humanity 
would be miserable. 

Total ignorance as to the nature of food is paid for by death. 
All persons should know what they are eating and why they 
eat it. Two men began life together eighty-five years ago. 
One was inclined to the belief that any and every kind of 
food was good enough as long as it was relished; at the age 
of forty he was a confirmed dyspeptic, unhappy and tortured; 
at the age of forty-five he died suddenly of gastritis due to an 
indiscreet dinner. He left fifteen million dollars, and a 
family who should have had his protecting care for many 
years longer. 

His friend is still living. At the age of eighty-four Russell 
Sage, full of physical and mental enjoyment of life, set out 
new flower gardens and helped to tend them. He has never 
been an extremist in eating. That is, he has not been a 
crank who limited his diet to a few things carefully estimated; 
nor has he, on the other hand, been a fool who has eaten 
everything he wanted when ordinary sense told him to avoid 
harmful articles. By not being reckless he has enjoyed forty 
years of life while his friend has been sleeping in the cemetery. 

Both these men were so constituted that either might have 
exchanged conditions with the other, and have met the same 


Relation of Life and Death to Diets and Foods 59 

fate. Thus had Russell Sage eaten the same kinds of food 
that his friend chose, and had the latter adopted Sage’s 
sensible methods, the one now dead would be alive, and the 
one now living would be dead. 

The following facts ought to be kept in mind: 

1. There are some kinds of foods, so-called and in common 
use, that are totally and absolutely unfit for use. If eaten 
alone for two days they would cause death. Taken, as they 
are, with wholesome articles, they cause distress and are doing 
latent injury to the organs and blood. 

2. There are some foods that do some good, but more 
harm than good. 

3. There are some foods that do more good than harm. 

4. There are some foods that do neither harm nor good. 

5. There are some foods that do no harm and all good. 

In the golden age of common sense, which may dawn to¬ 
morrow if so desired, the foods of humanity will be found 
only in the last named class. But today the world seeks the 
first four classes, and the D’s thrive:— 

The Diet-wrong brings Distress, Dyspepsia, Disease, 
Doctors, Drugs, Debility, Debt and Death. 

FOODS OF THE FUTURE 

While nature furnishes an abundant supply of nutriment 
for the human body, the arts of preparing it for the stomach 
have not yet been fully discovered. The three enemies of 
life today are: 

1. The frying pan. 

2. Baking powder and chemicals. 

3. Cake and pastry. 

This statement is not only Ralston, but it is also the claim 
made by the United States Government in their Bulletin on 
foods and food-values. 

It is not an easy thing to induce the people to give up these 


6 o 


The Ralston Health Club 


three enemies; for there are no substitutes to take their places. 
They admit that fried foods hurt them; that soda, baking 
powder and new-yeast-bread cause indigestion; that cake and 
pastry put them out of order; yet all those things tempt the 
appetite and create pleasant tastes while being eaten; and 
there is nothing to be used in their stead. 

All these years we have been asking for substitutes. The 
people have been listening. The producers of foods have 
read our books. Manufacturers have been experimenting; 
and it is a fact that the “ food of the future is now in sight.’' 
What is this food of the future? It is any preparation that 
will conform to the following necessary conditions: 

1. It must be wholesome and nutritious. 

2. It must be cooked and ready to eat. 

3. It must not be chemically treated to preserve its crisp¬ 

ness as some crackers, snaps, etc., are at this day. 

4. It must be palatable and inviting in appearance and 

taste. 

5. It must contain as little waste as possible. 

6. It must be free from tendencies to distress the system, 
it must be capable of digestion without taxing the vitality, 
and it must have staying powers. 

Since we first began to agitate this subject, numerous foods 
have been introduced that fully meet all the foregoing condi¬ 
tions, while there are some that do not. It is also a matter of 
pride to know that professors in leading universities who have 
made a special study of this question, have declared that the 
food of the future is to be prepared, cooked, condensed and 
possessed of keeping qualities. Some of these men are 
Ralstonites; but others who are not have arrived at the same 
conclusion without aid or suggestion from any of us. 

The evolution of the breakfast food is one of the great facts 
in this onward march of health interests. At first there were 
no breakfast foods; then came oats; then wheat; then special¬ 
ties; until at last the cooked form appeared; and any person 


Relation of Life and Death to Diets and Foods 6i 

in this year of 1903 who uses uncooked breakfast foods is 
certainly far behind the times. As we have no interest in 
the sale of any goods, and write without the knowledge of 
the manufacturers, we cannot mention names, nor do we ever 
assist in advertising their products, no matter how valuable 
they may be; but there are several varieties of cooked flake- 
breakfast-foods now on the market, and a score more coming, 
so that Ralstonites can make their choice without our aid. 

Uncooked breakfast foods are no longer the best. To be 
digestible and wholesome, the food for breakfast should be 
flaked and ready to be taken with cream and milk. It must 
not require heating, nor soaking, nor sweetening. While 
cream is to be preferred, milk is suitable. Much distress is 
caused by the use of grains that have to be cooked. We have 
not the time to explain the matter here, but any person can 
make the experiment and ascertain the facts. Countless 
thousands never know what hurts them, and go on taking 
the wrong thing thinking it is the right one. Many take 
breakfast foods that are totally unfit for the stomach; many 
take grain-made coffee, and wonder why they are in pain; 
and many eat most anything that is advertised as good food, 
never doubting the claims of the advertisers. 

Other foods, teas, drinks, tablets, and the like, are now on 
the market. Some are used in the armies of this and other 
nations. The idea is yet in a crude state of development, 
but it is the right idea and is sure of universal adoption in 
the near future. While we mention the facts and the natural 
principles on which they are founded, we have not made them 
a part of the Ralstonism of today, for we seek to avoid all 
steps that are not within easy reach of our members at this 
time. 


OHAPTEE SEVEN 


The Coming Shape of the Body and the 
Better Tendencies 



^ INCE THE BIRTH OF RALSTONISM, with its 
improving influences, the human body has begun to 
change for the better. While no one pretends that 
there will ever be a different arrangement of its 
parts, it is conceded that there is an opportunity for a material 
change in its make-up. The bone is fixed wherever it ap¬ 
pears; it can neither be made longer nor shorter, thicker nor 
thinner; but its covering and enfolding masses of flesh, skin. 


muscle, sinew and cord may be trained to better proportions 
and more important uses. 


Bulk food has done much to interfere with the shape of 
the body. If man were given to laziness and eating, two ten¬ 
dencies that are overcome by indigestion and the restlessness 
it causes, he would be a pouch, as are some specimens of 
Ethiopians. As it is, there are high-livers among the most 
civilized of our race who are largely pouched; and nearly half 
of all men and women tend to corpulence in mature age. 
This is due to bulk food. 

It is an old saying that the stomach must be distended or 
greatly stretched at least once each day, in order to excite 
its juices to flow and do their best work. This has been so 
thoroughly and so everlastingly preached for generation after 
generation that the public have accepted it without question. 
We believed in it for a long time; but our experiments, made 
repeatedly and among a large number of people under all 


The Coming Shape of the Body 


63 


conditions, have convinced us that the old notion was a 
theory and not a scientific fact. 

The truth of the matter is that nature sets in motion the 
whole machinery of the stomach and digestive tract, even 
when a crumb is swallowed; and the juices flow just as 
freely for one mouthful as for a quart. What the stomach 
mosts needs is something to do. Bulk weakens it. On the 
other hand a great quantity of concentrated food would break 
down its nervous tone, and do it injury. 

The chief composition of bulky food is water, with a small 
proportion of fiber or woody material. Water in quantity 
weakens the stomach, as is well known in cases of men or 
women who drink too much even of cool water. Ice water 
swallowed rapidly lowers the vitality, and this may be de¬ 
tected by noticing the action of the heart after any ice cold 
beverage has been taken. 

The bulk of any watery substance is sure to cause weak¬ 
ness of the stomach, although this result would not appear 
until after years of such abuse. It is the tendency to which 
we refer. The most vital and most energetic people of the 
world are those whose stomachs are small in proportion to 
the size of the body. The size of the abdomen may be due 
solely to the sedentary habits of the individual; and large¬ 
ness in this respect may exist with ^ small stomach to feed it. 
We know a man who weighs 250 pounds who never eats 
bulky food, and whose entire diet is not one-fourth that of 
the average person. How a person can live on a small 
quantity of food per day, is explained by the well known 
fact that human beings, like plants, can draw much of their 
life from the atmosphere. This law is one of the foundation 
principles of our Magnetism Club, which is in the Third 
Temple of Ralstonism. 

Bulk also causes much injury to the intestinal system, and 
nearly all fevers and deaths that originate there are due to the 
eating of vegetable-water and fiber. Turnips, carrots, beets, 


^4 The Ralston Health Club 

cabbages, kale, cauliflower, egg-plant, bean-pods, greens, and 
all leaves and roots, are almost nothing but water and a 
woody shred encasing it. Thus asparagus is about 94 per 
cent water; beets 87 water,- and i waste, making them 88 per 
cent useless; cabbage 91 water; carrots 82 water; cauliflower 
90 water; celery 84 water and 13 waste or 97 per cent useless; 
green corn 88 water and ii waste, or 99 useless; cucumber 
97 water and i waste; lettuce 94 water and over 4 waste, or 
over 98 useless; mushrooms 93 water and 2 waste; tomatoes 
96 water; turnips 90 water and 4 waste; and so on. 

The habit of eating so much bulk-food has become fixed 
upon humanity, and cannot be easily shaken off. For this 
reason we are confronted by two conditions; one of which 
IS based upon the fixed habits of to-day and the other of 
which is founded upon, the true habits of the future when the 
laws of nature are allowed full sway in human life. It is 
necessary to understand these opposing facts in order to har¬ 
monize the contradictions that are at hand, as may be seen 
in the following propositions: 

1. As long as conditions remain as they are to-day, bulk 
food will be necessary for the health of the stomach and the 
general body. 

2. When right methods of living are adopted, the use of 
bulk food will cease altogether and the shape of the body 
will change for the better. 

A change of this kind might be effected in a few years; and 
it would be a desirable one in every respect. The abdomen is 
merely a refuse cavity, an ashpit like the dump-box of a loco¬ 
motive. It is the seat of more maladies than are found in all 
other parts of the body combined. When a concentrated 
fuel, or any great energy in small compass, shall be fed to the 
body it will be able to do away with its dump-box, in part at 
least, just as the electric locomotive may supersede the coal- 
and-refuse engine. 

The claim is made that the intestinal canal is a digestive 


The Coming Shape of the Body 


65 


organ. This is true; but it is not a necessary one; for some 
foods like sweets digest in the mouth through the glands 
there, while many other kinds of food like beef juice are 
totally digested in the stomach. The foods that are best 
for humanity when perfectly prepared, never call for a digest¬ 
ive process lower than the stomach. 

The carrying of refuse matter in any part of the body is 
in accordance with man’s animal past; but it is absolutely at 
variance with his exalted future. It is this refuse matter 
that requires the liver and kidneys to be in a state of health 
that is never attained. It is this refuse matter that makes the 
breath foul, the blood impure, the flesh tainted and the stom¬ 
ach fetid; and all the sweetening tendencies are otit-balanced 
by a load of matter so offensive that it is always abhorred. 

In many ways have we met these faults of the body, but 
never so well as by the Anti-Death measures which consti¬ 
tute a small but important part of Complete Membership, at 
the fifth degree, in this the first Ralston Temple. Some day 
in the near future, if not in the next twelve-month, the food 
will be so well prepared in advance of its sale at the retail 
stores, that the body’s needs will be contained in it without a 
particle of unnecessary matter; and then a change will come 
over the whole race. 

The stomach and abdomen are very flexible. They are 
capable of great distention and contraction. The lungs are 
also endowed with power to contract and expand. No per¬ 
son has ever yet attained sufficient lung-development; 
although many have distended the air-cells already in use. 
When the lungs are given their full scope, they will bring 
an enormous vitality into the body, for life, vigor, energy, 
power and health are all coextensive with the natural capacity 
of the lungs. 

Deep and full breathing is not possible when the stomach 
or abdomen interferes, as all persons know; and, in like way, 
as these parts are reduced the opportunity for upper develop- 
5 


66 


The Ralston Health Club 


ment is increased. Only the flexible portions may be 
changed in the life-time of the individual; but heredity quickly 
takes up the new conditions and establishes such other shape 
as man’s habits may decree. 

The man and woman of the future will be of more beautiful 
shape and of far greater power than those of to-day. 

THE FALSE SIGNAL, RELISH 

There is an immense difference between the surface and 
the substance of many articles of food. What is called relish is 
too often taken from the taste of the surface. It is well known 
that fried food is injurious in its crisp part only, and this is the 
only part that excites the relish. Bread without dressing 
is not attractive; it is spread with butter or sweets to give it 
the taste of something better than it is; and in that condition 
it is relished. 

Carbon in some form supplies all the relish of foods. Car¬ 
bon feeds the force or energy of the body. It appears in 
animal fats, vegetable fats, sweets, sugars and starches. To 
be liked it must be made available. Cold fat is not available 
SO the meat is heated and the fat is cooked; the more the 
better for the taste. The danger point is reached when the 
heating proceeds to crispness, and as such the liver refuses to 
accept it. 

Butter is carbon. It is spread upon starch, and that is 
carbon also; but in the wheat or other grains it is not avail¬ 
able; in the baking it is nearly so; and in the spreading of 
butter upon its surface it is made ready, and is harmless, un¬ 
less very new. Bread just baked is like fried food, more at¬ 
tractive tO' the taste, but the liver refuses to aid its digestion 
and it causes much suffering ere long. 

Other carbons such as honey, jam, jelly, preserves^ sugar, 
syrup, and the like, feed the relish and make bread and cakes 
palatable. If pure they are free from all harm and are bene¬ 
ficial. Store jellies, jams and preserves are generally impure. 


The Coming Shape of the Body 


67 


as the business of adulterating them is very extensive. The 
storekeepers are often misled into believing them absolutely 
pure. The only safe way is to use home-made articles. 

There are two things to be remembered. The first is that 
false relish is aroused by the surface taste. The second is 
that carbon is the only excitant of relish; and it is in some 
available form that appeals to the taste, such as fried or 
roasted fats of meats, cream, butter, sugar, syrups, and sweets 
of all kinds. Stimulants and condiments are all outlaws. 

Sick persons have been told so often that they ought to be 
guided by their relish, that the principle underlying the 
matter ought to be stated. When the article of diet that is 
craved is harmless, it should be given in preference to others; 
but when an invalid craves foods that are sure to be injurious 
they should be avoided. Relish is not a guide. It is too 
often a misfortune, as in the case of tobacco-chewing, alco¬ 
holic beverages, crisp fried grease, new bread and other 
things. 

THE FRYING PAN 

The liver will not act upon any fried grease, nor upon any 
crisp surfaces. It stagnates in their presence. The yellow 
bile is forced into the blood. The face is of bad hue. The 
breath is foul. The blood is tainted. The individual is 
bilious. 

The danger of the frying pan is increased in proportion as 
the hard grease surface is great. Whereas in the case of 
potatoes, the food is merely warmed in fat, and there is no 
attempt to get them crisp, there is no harm; but the same 
potatoes if fried until the surfaces are browned, would do 
some injury; and if sliced thin and fried like “ chips,” the 
entire potato-value is turned into a product the danger of 
which is 100 per cent; that is, it yields no value as food, and is 
all harm. In like manner fried cakes, doughnuts, meats and 
other articles, similarly cooked, are injurious, although they 
please the taste. 


CHAPTER EIGHT 


The Science of Eating 

WHAT FOODS ARE COMPOSED OF ^ 

^ ^ ^ ^ and 4- 

^ HOW THEY MAKE THE BODY 


supplies the whole life of the body. The 

latter is composed of fourteen elements, every one of 


J_ b which must be constantly supplied. 

If any one food-element is omitted, ill health follows. T hus 
if all the minerals are not furnished the disease known as 
rickets would result. The food-elements should be supplied, 
as nearly as possible, in their due proportions. 

The body is about three-fourths oxygen, which is the most 
active of all. This activity is required to keep the body alive; 
for life itself is activity. The act of living is the chemical 
burning of the body; this produces heat and heat produces 
power. 

The body is composed of cells united in many ways. A 
drop of blood contains millions of food-cells which are sup¬ 
plied by the nutrition that is daily taken into the body. The 
stomach extracts these cells from the food, they pass into the 
blood, and the latter by its circulation carries them to every 
part of the body. 

The vitality of the body draws them into the organic 
structure, and is really the builder of the body in all its details 
from the greatest to the smallest. When the vitality is lack¬ 
ing, or is of low degree, the very best food in the world will 
not be assimilated. 



The Science of Eating 


69 


The food-cells make muscles, nerves, bones, flesh and every¬ 
thing else that makes up the structure of the body. The day’s 
activities are performed by the burning up of these cells. 
Thus, the raising of a finger burns a great number of them. 
Hard thinking consumes them. Lifting a heavy weight 
burns countless millions. 

Wherever activity is greatest the consumption by chemical 
burning is likewise the greatest. Wherever this consumption 
is greatest, under normal conditions, the blood is most eager 
to offer a new supply, and so rebuild at the place of chief 
activity. If the vitality is low the new supply will not be 
assimilated, and atrophy will follow even in the presence of 
the best food. 

The quality of the new supply depends upon the quality of 
the food that enters the stomach. Improper food always 
lowers the vitality, and its use, through a long number of 
years, gradually undermines the health, so that in time it is 
almost impossible to get nourishment from pure food, as 
the warning is received too late. 

The method then to be adopted is to prevent further injury 
to the vitality by improper food; and, at the same time, to 
take decisive steps for rebuilding the vitality. When these two 
methods can be united, or made to work together, it is pos¬ 
sible to rebuild the human body, even in parts that are sub¬ 
ject to the inroads of disease. 

The fourteen elements of the body are: i, oxygen; 2, car¬ 
bon; 3, hydrogen; 4, nitrogen; 5, calcium; 6, phosphorus; 
7, sulphur; 8, sodium; 9, chlorine; 10, fluorine; ii, iron; 
12, potassium; 13, magnesium; 14, silicon. • 

The first four elements constitute what is known as proto¬ 
plasm, which is the basis of all life everywhere, whether, in 
the animal or vegetable kingdom. Pure blood is very nearly 
pure protoplasm; so that the other ten elements are merely 
incidental, although absolutely necessary, to human life. It 
is by variations that are very slight, that one kind of life 


70 


The Ralston Health Club 


differs from another, that the oak differs from the rose, or 
man differs from the insect. 

While oxygen furnishes the means of activity, carbon 
furnishes the heat or power, hydrogen supplies the medium 
of change, and nitrogen the fibrous material that builds the 
tissue by which the parts are held together. 

The minerals furnish materials for bones, hair and minor de¬ 
tails; and assist in digestion and other processes that are 
going on in the body. Oxygen enters the body through 
the air that is breathed, the water that is drank, and the foods 
that are eaten. 

About seventy per cent of the food substance supplied each 
day should be carbon; and this is found in grains, flours, 
sugars, fats, and oils. The harder the work of the muscles 
or brain, the more carbon is needed, and physical energy 
comes from no other source. But the real vitality of the 
body must exist behind this energy. 

Nothing is food unless it is found in the form of life-cells; 
and these life-cells are created or originated solely in the vege¬ 
table kingdom, although they may be transformed through 
other flesh into the human body. 

Everything else, except that which exists in the form of life- 
cells is inorganic; and it is dangerous to put inorganic sub¬ 
stances into the stomach. 

The vegetable kingdom consists of trees, plants, grains, 
fruits, berries, vegetables, etc. 

The animal kingdom includes all meats such as beef, lamb, 
pork, fowl, fish, milk, eggs, butter, honey, etc. 

Foods are divided into flesh-builders and heat-producers; 
and the two are valuable when taken together at the same 
meal; but they lower the vitality and fail to give the expected 
benefits to the system when taken separately. 

It is for this reason that sugar, or confectionary when eaten 
on an empty stomach is injurious; and the flesh of meat, 
which has been deprived of much of its juice, will poison the 


The Science of Eating 


71 


system and, if its use is long continued will result in starva¬ 
tion. 

The best meal is that which consists of carbons mixed in 
due proportion with flesh-builders. The latter we call nitro¬ 
genous foods, and chemists call them proteids. 

Prompt digestion is necessary to health and mental bright¬ 
ness. It is the result of a chemical balance existing between 
the alkaline and the acid. When this balance is disturbed 
indigestion follows, the stomach being generally too acid, 
which results in gases, flatulence and fermentation. 

The membrane of the stomach must be in a normal and 
healthy condition, or good digestion will be impossible, and 
the whole body will suffer in consequence. This membrane 
is injured by minerals that are in an inorganic state, by medi¬ 
cines, and by all stimulants, such as coffee, tea and alcohol. 
An injured membrane cannot properly digest any food. 

This membrane, or lining of the stomach as it is properly 
called, is also injured by carbons such as starches, sugars and 
fats taken out of balance with flesh-builders. It is for this 
reason that canned fruits, raisins, cakes, pastry and sweets, 
when not balanced by flesh-builders or nitrogenous foods, 
produce sickness at the stomach, loss of vitality, poor blood 
and disease. 

The saliva of the mouth, if not acid, will quickly digest 
starch foods that are thoroughly chewed; and a tender stom¬ 
ach is greatly benefited by this process. On the other hand 
the rapid eating of starchy foods, of which bread is the most 
common, leads to indigestion, soreness of the stomach and 
weakness of the system. 

The human stomach has a strong preference for carbons, 
and these are generally eaten with too great rapidity. They, 
therefore, cause a double injury; first, by not being sufficiently 
balanced with the flesh-builders; and second, by being too 
hastily eaten. 


CHAPTEE NINE 


Cereals and Grains 

THE OLDEST AND BEST FOODS OF LIFE 

EREALS ARE RIPENED GRAINS and are called 
/ iTy starchy foods. They are eaten in three forms: 
V J flours, meals and breakfast foods. 

^They are man’s best foods at the present day, and 
are the only eatables that keep themselves; as, under proper 
protection, they will last for many years without decay. 

The cereals in common use are wheat, corn, rye, rice, barley, 
oats and buckwheat. These seven cereals are used in various 
ways; some are ground into flour, others into meal, others 
made into breakfast food, and all of them enter into other 
special forms. 

Wheat produces white flour, perfect flour, whole wheat 
flour, bran and breakfast foods. Wheat breakfast foods are 
cracked, rolled, shredded and ground. 

The only suitable breakfast foods of any kind that are free 
from dangers, are those that are capable of long cooking, 
which means that they must be subjected to great heat for not 
less than one hour. 

When cooked for less than an hour, they may be soft by 
reason of the fact that the food-cells are separated from each 
other; but this does not imply that they, the food-cells them¬ 
selves, have been opened by the cooking process; hence brief 
periods of cooking, which soften the breakfast foods, do not 
render them digestible. 


Cereals and Grains 


73 


Very little nutrition is obtained from any of the breakfast 
foods now on the market, owing to the lack of sufficient 
cooking. This statement does not apply to some of those 
that are in cooked form when offered for sale. 

The use of cooked breakfast foods is rapidly increasing in 
this country. The best of them are subjected to a slight 
malting process which renders them easily digestible and 
they are thoroughly cooked before they are offered for sale, 
some in one form and some in another. On account of their 
thorough preparation at the mills they are much better than 
the uncooked foods. 

It is necessary to avoid some of the cooked cereals now on 
the market, because their chief purpose seems to be to appeal 
to the taste. Some of these are of a light color and resemble 
pastry or rich crackers; they lead to indigestion. 

Many of the most wholesome breakfast foods are improperly 
cooked at home, and are rendered unpalatable. It requires 
skill both to cook and to serve them; and this skill is lacking 
in almost every instance. The same cereal may be rendered 
unattractive to the taste by ninety-nine housekeepers, and yet 
made delicious by the one hundredth. 

Some of the coarse looking breakfast foods seem to be too 
rough for the system; but this is not always true. The 
rougher kinds are generally ground rather fine; whereas the 
finer kinds are left coarse. This is true of cracked whole 
wheat, from which the hulls have been removed. It is sold 
in bulk and not in packages. 

On the other hand graham flour, which contains the hull, 
bran and all is ground as fine as possible; and yet it is very 
dangerous to the health. 

Certain so-called malted breakfast foods are subjected to 
the malting process to an extent that deprives them of much 
of their value as well as palatability. 

It is best to start the malting process, so as to change the 
chemical character of the grain; and then let it cease. This 


74 


The Ralston Health Club 


is the method employed in preparing some of the dark 
colored cooked flaky breakfast foods now on the market. 

Several forms of malted milk made from selected grains 
and condensed milk, which have been subjected to the slight 
malting process, are coming into use as a means of health. 
They can be taken as a drink by adding three parts of hot 
water to one part of the food. They are also eaten as a 
powder sprinkled on bread which has been slightly buttered, 
or without the butter. 

Malted foods as a rule are easily digested, and aid in the 
digestion of other foods. 

Cereal breakfast foods are best taken with a very slight 
addition of thin cream; but milk should not be used abun¬ 
dantly with them, as the combination is not always easy of 
digestion. The rule for eating milk is to let it predominate 
in the proportion of nine parts to one of other food, or else 
the reverse of this. 

As we have said the quick cooking breakfast foods should 
be avoided. Let them be subjected to the greatest possible 
heat for fully one hour; and, if this renders them toO' mushy 
let them be put in a very hot oven and almost browned. This 
method is entirely new. It renders the most unpalatable 
breakfast foods quite inviting and delicious. 

Care should be taken to avoid the very dark brown and 
the very light colored preparations. The former contain 
bran which leads to catarrh of the stomach and intestines and 
has caused death. The latter is a weak form of flour that is 
incapable of making good bread, and is as injurious as pie 
crust would be if taken as a breakfast food. 

It is a common practice to-day to put up the refuse of mills 
in attractive packages, and advertise them very boastingly, 
claiming that they are equal to beef in nutritive value, and 
capable of building health and strength. The fact is, they are 
worse than worthless as food and yet the public are deceived 
into paying high prices for them. 


CHAPTER TEN 


Bread and Flours 

HOW THEY ARE COMPOSED ^ ^ 

^ HOW MADE AND COOKED ^ 

THEIR VALUE UNDER BEST CONDITIONS 

^ WHAT TO AVOID ^ ^ ^ 

IFE IS BUILT MOSTLY OF the bread that is eaten, 
I and the higher up the scale of civilization a people 

I ^ may come, the more wheat they use. This is a 
universally proved fact. The coarser the diet, 
the rougher and cruder will be the people and their minds 
and bodies as well. 

When grains are ground as fine as possible they are called 
flours, and bread, cake and pastry are made from them. 
Wheat produces the most common as well as the best of 
these flours. 

Wheat as a grain consists of starch and six coats or layers 
that cover it. The three outer coats are known as bran; this 
is indigestible when it enters the system, but bran water which 
is obtained by soaking it is very wholesome and nutritious. 

Graham flour consists of the starch with all six coats ground 
with it. Some unprincipled millers have been in the habit of 
extracting the starch, and selling the wheat-coats as graham 
flour. 

Most of the whole wheat flour now sold on the market 
makes soggy bread; and all soggy bread is injurious to the 
stomach. This may be easily tested by the efforts of any 
good housekeeper. 



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The Ralston Health Club 


Flour made from the starch alone, while it makes light 
rising and very white bread, is a severe tax on the digestive 
organs. 

Perfect flour is made from the starch just mentioned 
ground with the sixth inner layer of the wheat. This flour 
has a faint delicate yellow tint. It is not produced in its per¬ 
fection in this country, although one or two brands of the 
light yellow grade have been on sale here for twenty or thirty 
years. 

This perfect flour was recently introduced into Europe, 
where it originated, and is now taking the place of nearly 
all other kinds. It is ground by the Schweitzer process, and 
many families have small mills at home. The grain is ground 
fresh two or three times a week as needed, which gives the 
bread a much more delicious flavor. 

So appetizing and strengthening is this kind of bread, that 
the hardest working laborers of Europe can subsist upon it 
day in and day out without the use of other food, except 
white potatoes. The two go together as a complete combi¬ 
nation of all the elements needed by the body. 

So valuable is the Schweitzer process of making perfect 
flour that the United States Government, in its reports is 
recommending it for this country; and the time is not far 
distant when home-made perfect bread, from home-made 
perfect flour, will be the chief article of food in America. 

The starch of the wheat furnishes the carbon that is needed 
by the body. The nitrogenous element is found in gluten 
which is a gluey substance. It is tough and very elastic, and 
any gas will stretch it open into large cells like sponge. 

This process is called raising it. Eermentation, as well as 
certain chemicals, will generate a gas that will raise bread. 
Yeast is the most favored of the ferments; it unites with the 
starch and produces carbonic acid gas. This gas is the kind 
of poison that comes from the lungs as foul air. For this 
reason new bread is not good. 


Bread and Flours 


77 


The gas, however, escapes in a few hours. Toasting new 
biead drives it out; and this is the most wholesome way of eat¬ 
ing it. Yeast powder is not good as it leaves a mineral in 
the bread. Baking powders do the same thing; and if perfect 
health is desired they should not be used either in bread or 
cake. 

The other grains contain gluten but it is much more elastic 
in wheat. Corn cannot become a good loaf producer, 
although it stands next to wheat in nutritive value. Rye 
stands next to corn in value but makes better bread. 

Alum is the cheapest of all bread raisers, for which reason 
it is used extensively by bakers. It is a slow poison and 
remains a long time in the body. 

Owing to the abundance of carbon in corn, this grain is 
considered too fattening; but hominy is a form of corn in 
which this objection is not present. Sedentary persons 
should not eat corn but may take hominy instead. 

Rye is rich in starch but is not a complete food like wheat 
or corn. Being an unbalanced food it leaves a craving for 
stimulants. Wheat and rye combined in the proportion of 
one-fourth rye to three-fourths wheat flour produce a very 
palatable and nutritious bread. In France this mixture is 
called meteil. 

Barley is very indigestible, except among people who live 
out of doors most of the time and are very active. Pearl 
barley is mainly the starch taken from the grain, and is the 
only form in which barley can be used m this country. In 
soup it is very nutritious and easy to digest. 

Oats were the chief grain food of Europe for two thousand 
years. They lack gluten and therefore make very poor 
bread. They contain an indigestible cellulose which is not 
suited to the human stomach, except after hours of cooking. 

Oats also have a bitter juice that poisons the liver, causes 
heart-burn and palpitation. Out-door air and excessive 
activity overcome these faults. 


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The Ralston Health Club 


The best form of oats is found in what is known as the true 
Scotch groats. Most of the so-called Scotch groats are not 
genuine. When properly made the husks are all removed 
and the remaining grain is parched, leaving a very delicious 
food. Most millers leave the husks on and these are very 
injurious. 

For the same reason breakfast food oats do more harm than 
good. 

Buckwheat is the least valuable of all the cereals; it is the 
most unbalanced having no all-around quality. Its one sided 
sweet nature causes pimples on the face; and buckwheat 
cakes are the cause of many bad complexions. 

Rice is the most easily digested of all the cereals but does 
not possess the staying qualities that are needed, and is not 
valuable unless eaten with other food. It is unbalanced, but 
produces no injury except a deficiency of nutrition. It is 
best when eaten with freshly caught fish, or with eggs, soups 
or broths. 

Rice is a clean food that helps to make pure blood if it is 
properly balanced by other articles of diet such as those we 
have mentioned. 

Tapioca is made from the manioc plant and is a purified 
form of cassava. It is almost pure starch and makes a good 
flour and a good bread, but is an unbalanced food, and should 
be eaten with other kinds in order to be beneficial. 

Pearl “ tapioca ” is one of the greatest frauds of food manu¬ 
facture for the reason that it is made from potatoes, and pre¬ 
pared in a form that is not only lacking in nutrition but is 
also dangerous to the system. 

“ Pearl tapioca ” when cooked, produces a gummy, soggy 
mass, and cannot be made into palatable puddings without 
a great deal of artificial dressing that serves to hide rather 
than harmonize with it. 

Sago is made from the pith of certain palms. It is 
more refined than pure tapioca and of better flavor. Like 


Bread and Flours 


79 


the latter it is easily digested, and nutritious when properly 
balanced. 

Mosses are slightly nutritious and readily digested. Ice¬ 
land moss is the best; but Irish moss and certain kinds of sea 
weed are also good, but all must be purified first. 

Crackers are digestible if not “ doctored.’’ Most of those 
on the market are half pastry, and are therefore not good. 
Others are chemically treated to enable them to keep crisp 
for a long time; they are very injurious and, if eaten in 
quantity, will cause pain in the stomach, heart burn and 
vomiting. 

Water-crackers or any of the common kinds are free from 
injurious effects but should be masticated a long time before 
being swallowed. Package crackers are not the best and 
the fancy kinds are almost invariably made with alum. 

Cakes put up in packages, as well as other fancy articles of 
food are generally made with alum and are therefore very 
injurious. 



CHAPTEK ELEVEN 


Vegetables, Roots and Tubers 



^ FROM EVERY SOURCE IN NATURE’S REALM 

NUTRITIOUS FOODS AND POISONS ARE FOUND 

TRENGTH COMES from what is eaten, yet disease 
and death find their first cause in the errors of selec¬ 
tion and the faults of cooking. Not all things that 
go by the name of food are fit for the body, for 
dangers Inrk at every hand. 

All foods that are not animal belong to the vegetable king¬ 
dom. Vegetables is the popular name for roots, tubers and 
green stuff. When eaten in a greater quantity than is neces- 
saary for balancing the other lines of food they make the 
system alkaline. 

On the other hand excessive meat makes the system acid. 
The counter influences of alkali and acid are necessary for 
health. One should neutralize and destroy the other so that 
neither is prominent. 

A little less than half, or about four-tenths of the daily food 
should be vegetables; five-tenths, or more, should be cereals, 
including flour, meals and other forms of the grains; and 
one-tenth, or less, should be from the animal kingdom. 

The proportions just given are for that class of people who 
call themselves meat eaters. In so far as they increase the 
quantity of meat beyond that stated, they invite acidity into 
the system, and this leads to rheumatism and kindred 
troubles, besides poisoning the liver and kidneys. 

Persons who eat more than one-tenth in weight of meat 



Vegetables, Roots and Tubers 


8i 


each day, should lessen the quantity at once, but should not 
discard the use of meat altogether unless they do so very 
gradually. Sudden changes in the diet lead to weakness 
and derangement of the system. 

While vegetables and the cereals both belong to the vege¬ 
table kingdom, we speak of the former as the roots, tubers 
and green stuff which are popularly so called. 

They furnish bulk in order to prevent a too concentrated 
diet; but, as the grains have come more and more into use in 
the last few centuries, and are eaten more now than ever 
before the watery vegetables are no longer needed; for they 
served to counteract the effect of excessive meat eating in 
age when mankind was compelled by necessity to depend 
upon animal life as the chief article of diet. 

At that time it is probable that more than one-half of all the 
food eaten consisted of flesh. Owing to the great activity 
of the lives of the people and to their constant outdoor occu¬ 
pations, the ill effects of meat eating were thrown off, and the 
acidity overcome by the watery vegetables and fruits. But 
cancers were very common then and the heritage still remains. 

Cereals and grains do not furnish a concentrated food, 
unless the starchy part alone is used; and, in proportion as 
meats are eaten in addition to the cereals four or five times 
the weight of the flesh so eaten should be the amount of 
vegetables taken to balance them. 

Meats constipate, if they are in good condition; grains, 
bread and starches, as well as sugars, tend slightly toward 
constipation; but vegetables have the opposite effect. Coarse 
vegetables are too rough for the system, and irritate the in¬ 
testines besides weakening the body. We doubt if they are 
useful even for the purpose of relieving constipation. 

Uncooked vegetables generally contain unopened cells 
that are indigestible. Some of these cells are opened by 
nature in its process of ripening. Others are not opened ex¬ 
cept by the most thorough cooking. 

6 


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The Ralston Health Club 


Peas, beans and lentils are best when green. When ripe 
they have tough envelopes that can never be digested, and 
they cause considerable distress on this account. They are 
called vegetables when green; but when ripe they should be 
classed as grains. Some day a process will be found for re¬ 
moving the tough envelopes, and they will then furnish foods 
that will take rank with the most wholesome that can be had. 

Green peas, beans and lintels are valuable when they are 
not too far advanced toward ripening. In the latter case 
they should be made in the form of soups or stews from which 
the tough coverings may be removed by straining. When 
this is done they are found more nutritious and valuable. 
Green pea soups as well as those made of green beans and 
lentils have been coming into vogue of late years, and are 
prepared in the way we have stated. 

With the exception of wheat no more valuable grains can 
be found than dried peas, beans and lentils, if the tough 
covering could be removed. As it is, they are most service¬ 
able in their present condition when cooked in thick por¬ 
ridges; and, as such, they do very much toward establishing 
good health. As they are not heaters, they are very valuable 
as summer grains before the new crops arrive; or even as a 
means of change from the latter. 

Baked beans are hard to digest on two accounts; first, on 
account of the tough envelopes which surround them, and 
also on account of the fat being baked in the beans. 

Split peas are generally free from the envelopes referred 
to, and are then nutritious and valuable. They do not appear 
upon the table as often as their merits require. 

Beans, peas and lentils are often referred to as vegetable- 
grains, on account of their performing the office of green 
stuff when used in an unripe condition. Even when fully ripe 
they are deficient in heating elements, are served to keep the 
body cool in summer, as we have already stated; but this de¬ 
ficiency requires that they be cooked with some fat. In the 


Vegetables, Roots and Tubers 


83 


winter they require considerable fat to balance them or they 
leave the body cold. These facts are of such importance 
that they should be made use of in harmonizing the foods 
with the seasons of the year. 

Green corn does not perform the offices of a vegetable; 
and, when very green is indigestible. As it approaches 
maturity it becomes more suited to the system. 

Canned corn is also indigestible, and should never appear 
upon the table. It passes through the system in an un¬ 
changed condition. 

Tomatoes are best when raw, but should not be eaten with 
much vinegar. While they are not nutritious they are often 
appetizing. Some persons eat tomatoes in a variety of forms, 
cooked and uncooked. They must remember that these 
apparently harmless vegetables contain oxalic acid. 

Rheumatism is caused by uric acid in the blood, and this is 
caused directly by the presence of oxalic acid which comes 
from tomatoes. During the tomato season, which in some 
cases lasts the year round, the frequency of rheumatic and 
neuralgic pains keeps pace with quantities of tomatoes that 
are eaten in one form, and another, in persons who are pre¬ 
disposed to such maladies. When tomatoes are omitted 
altogether, the pains are lessened. 

It must not be supposed that rheumatism and neuralgia 
are chiefly due to this vegetable. There are three great 
causes of rheumatism; the first of which is excessive meat 
eating, the second is the use of sweets and acids combined to¬ 
gether, and the third is the presence of oxalic acid. The 
habits of some persons tend to drive the accumulating urea 
out of the system before it has time to take the form of the 
indissoluble uric acid. 

Potatoes lead all vegetables, and the white potato is almost 
equal to bread made from wheat. Potatoes must be cooked 
in such a way as to be mealy and not soggy. In the former 
state they are very wholesome and easily digested unless they 


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The Ralston Health Club 


are fried to a crisp. If soggy, heavy or waxy they are wholly 
worthless. 

Very young potatoes are not good as their cells are unde¬ 
veloped. Very old potatoes get waxy and lose their value. 
In keeping potatoes they should not be allowed to remain in 
the light, as they lose their flavor; nor should any be used 
that are green in color, for they are slightly poisonous. 
Sprouts should not be allowed to grow upon them, but should 
be removed as soon as they appear. When they are partly 
decayed, even the better portion of them should not be used. 

Potatoes should not be raised in damp or wet soil. They 
are best produced in land where sod of heavy growth has 
been turned under. 

Baked potatoes are the most nutritious and digestible. If 
boiled, the skins should remain on until done. A potato 
that does not burst the skin while boiling is not mealy; it gets 
soft without developing the cells. 

Fried potatoes, if mealy, are digestible except at the surface; 
if soggy or solid they are unfit for the stomach. Thin fried 
chips are very hurtful. Mashed potatoes are excellent if not 
heavy or gummy. 

Sweet potatoes contain some nutrition but are very hard to 
digest. They should never be eaten except when very mealy; 
and invalids should avoid them altogether. The yam, or red 
sweet potato is more valuable. 

Beets consist mostly of water, with a little sugar and starch. 
When young they are excellent as a balance; but when old 
they have but slight value. 

Carrots have some nutrition but should be young and ten¬ 
der. When old they are good only for flavoring. The same 
is true of parsnips. 

Turnips should be discarded altogether, unless they are 
desired for flavoring soups and stews. 

Salsify, or oyster plant, is easily digested and of some 
value. 


Vegetables, Roots and Tubers 85 

Radishes are a relish merely. They have no food value 
and are indigestible, nor do they serve as a balance for con¬ 
centrated food. Death has quickly followed the overeating 
of them. 

Cabbage is wholly indigestible and has no food value when 
old. Young cabbage may be digested by strong stomachs, 
and serves as a balance; but invalids should never eat it in any 
form. Sauerkraut and cold slaw go through the body un¬ 
changed. 

Cauliflower, if well cooked, can be digested by strong 
stomachs; but dyspeptics should let it alone. 

Lettuce is good with vinegar and oil, but very little of the 
vinegar should be allowed to enter the stomach. When used 
with salt only it is still better. Without the oil it serves only 
as a balance; but with the oil it has a food value and is good 
for invalids being especially useful in diabetes. It will prove 
a medium for introducing a larger consumption of olive oil, 
which will some day take the place of animal fats in the foods 
of mankind. 

What is said of lettuce is equally true of cresses. 

Celery has an appetizing flavor, but lacks nutriment. It 
is best when cooked in milk until very soft. Eaten raw it 
serves as a balance; but should not be used by invalids. 
Celery salt is excellent for soups and salads. 

The celery preparations sold at the drug stores are based on 
a notion that was once popular and ascribed to this vegetable 
a nerve soothing and quieting power; but this claim is entirely 
without foundation. There is nothing in celery that has 
nerve value nor is it a stimulant. 

The egg-plant is related to the tomato, but has less value. 
It is harder to digest, and when fried crisp it is injurious. 

Cucumbers are wholly indigestible, and have no value as 
a balance nor do they contain nutriment. If the vitality of 
the body is very low they cause violent diarrhoea. All weak 
stomachs should avoid them. 


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The Ralston Health Club 


Pickles or pickled cucumbers serve no purpose whatever, 
and should not be allowed to enter the system. The vinegar 
with which they are saturated destroys the red corpuscle's in 
the blood and leads to anemia. 

Asparagus is excellent when young and tender. The green 
part is resinous and should never be eaten. The white part 
is easily digested and is good not only as a balance, but has a 
special value for the kidneys and associate organs. While 
it does not possess much nutriment, it should be remembered 
that most vegetables lack nutrition and yet they serve great 
usefulness. 

Rhubarb is excellent if the eater of it has no tendency to 
gout or rheumatism. Being very acid it requires sweetening, 
and this renders it a danger in the maladies referred to. 

Squashes take a very high rank as a vegetable used to 
balance concentrated foods. Pumpkins are more bulky and 
have less food value. 

Onions, garlic and leek are all related to each other. They 
contain some food value, which is increased when they are 
cooked in milk. Raw onions are totally indigestible, and are 
craved by persons with morbid intestinal conditions. Pickled 
onions are valueless and hurtful. 

Old onions are hard to digest; those two-thirds grown are 
best. If the bowels are out of order the odor of onions will 
remain in the breath more than six hours. 

Cranberries cause uric acid and rheumatism. 

The value of a vegetable cannot be determined by the quan¬ 
tity of food it contains; for there are some like squash that 
have very little nutriment and yet are needed for the purpose 
of balancing concentrated food and especially of counter¬ 
acting the dangers of meat eating. 

With such a means of balance meat becomes helpful to the 
body as long as it is less than one-fourth in weight of the 
vegetables eaten, and less than one-tenth in weight of the 
total daily diet. 


CHAPTEK TWELVE 


Meats and Fish 


LIFE THAT HAS EATEN LIFE ^ 
^ IS NOT FIT FOOD FOR MAN ^ 



HERE IS NO SUBJECT upon which so much ignor¬ 


ance is displayed as that which deals with food taken 
from the animal kingdom. As a general classifi¬ 


cation it may be said that food that does not belong to the 
vegetable kingdom is animal. 

Thus fruits, grains, grasses, vegetables and nuts belong to 
the vegetable kingdom; while meats, fish, fowl, milk, butter, 
cheese, cream, eggs, and honey are all animal products, 
although some of these are closer to the vegetable kingdom 
than others. 

A vegetarian is a person who avoids all animal products; 
and, while he may be right in principle, he loses sight of two 
or three facts that cannot be safely overlooked in making the 
change from one clas# of foods to another. To suddenly 
alter the diet is always productive of danger, except where the 
person is already in a dangerous condition. In the latter 
case the trouble would be due to an excessive use of meat or 
of green vegetables. 

Man’s hold upon this planet has been retained through 
every kind of vicissitude and danger; and, by the offices of 
Nature, he has resorted to any makeshift that sufficed him in 
each period of struggle. Being a form of flesh, he has been 
compelled to eat it or die. For this reason his stomach and 


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The Ralston Health Club 


digestive apparatus are so constructed that he can live on 
almost one class of food alone, or on any two or more, or on 
all together. 

He is capable of an exclusive diet of meat, or of a diet part 
of meat and other foods; or he can go from birth to death, 
a hundred years or longer, on the other foods, never knowing 
or tasting meat. Such are the provisions which Nature has 
made for his means of digestion. 

The evidence when fully examined is conclusive that the 
use of meat was intended as a makeshift; that is, to tide man 
over in those eras of vicissitude when he would have perished 
but for its aid. Birds, fish and animals were abundant at the 
time the Pilgrims landed in this country, and their presence 
made the foundation of modern republics a possibility. All 
other foods were scarce and hard to obtain. 

Humanity in Europe were meat eaters to such an extent 
that hunting was the great profession of men for two 
thousand years, and probably more; and as we go backward 
through history, we find them growing steadily savage. Life 
was always in danger, and so unsafe that any person might 
expect his death at any minute. The only tribes or nations 
that were not known as barbarians were the grain eaters of 
Greece and Rome in their classic days, out of whom came the 
best brains and best athletes of any age, and the Caucasians 
of Asia who limited their use of meat, thus making themselves 
gentler and preparing the way for the Sublime works that rule 
the world to-day. 

If you give a piece of meat to a kitten, using such meat 
as is found on the plate at the ordinary meal in any house, 
the results may destroy the nervous balance of the animal 
and send it into convulsions. The experiment has been tried 
many times, and, although felines are natural meat eaters, 
caring little for anything else, it has been necessary to limit 
them in youth, to save crazing them by nervous derangement. 
Dogs fed on meat are ferocious and dangerous, and what is 


Meats and Fish 89 

called madness is not only due to, but can be incited by, too 
heavy a meat diet from early youth. 

Some parents give meat to their children in infancy, not 
knowing that the longer this kind of food can be withheld the 
healthier, gentler and more moral will be the lives of the boys 
and girls, especially at the crucial age of young manhood and 
young womanhood. Among children from two to five years 
of age, hundreds of deaths from convulsions have been trace¬ 
able directly to meat eating, and nervous hysteria from over¬ 
strung temperaments in the young will be found due to the 
same cause, or else to indiscreet meat eating by mothers 
who nurse their children. 

That misuse proves dangerous does not argue against the 
proper use of anything. The richest blessings of life turn up¬ 
on us when trifled with. In the present question there are cer¬ 
tain laws which it is more wrong to disregard than it is right 
to eschew a valuable evil. Let us see what they are: 

1. Persons who have depended for strength upon the meat- 
digesting ability of the stomach cannot safely shift to a non¬ 
meat diet without a long process of change, involving great 
care. It is better that they continue using the preferred 
meats. 

2. Persons who have decided to leave off meat eating 
should know what that means, for the equivalents of meat 
must first be secured in digestible form, and it is very hard to 
find such food. 

' 3. The safest way is to begin by discarding all unfit meats, 
thus coming at once to the kinds that are wholesome. A 
further elimination may then be determined upon at a later 
period. 

The meats used by mankind are of various classes, and may 
be arranged in different ways; but the two great divisions 
are as follows: 

1. The meat of vegetarian animals. 

2. The meat of flesh-eating animals. 


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The Ralston Health Club 


The word animal applies to any life that is not a part of the 
vegetable kingdom. Thus, fish, fowl, birds and insects are 
animals in the same sense as man and beast are. So fruits 
and grains, by this division of science, are of the vegetable 
kingdom, as are trees, plants, flowers and garden vegetables. 
A vegetarian is a human being or any animal life that ex¬ 
cludes meat from its food. 

The meat of a flesh-eating animal is a cancerous poison. We 
propose to state some facts that are too vital in their import¬ 
ance to remain dormant any longer. You who are interested 
in getting down to the solid truth take the time, if you will, 
to experiment, and place the results of actual knowledge 
against the arguments and theories of science. We do not 
say that science itself is wrong, but it is true that its con¬ 
clusions are often incorrectly assumed, and other scientists 
have been at work refuting them year in and year out. 

Some animals will not eat flesh. Take those that will: a 
hundred cats, a hundred dogs, a hundred hens and a hundred 
hogs. Feed some of them from birth with vegetarian diet, and 
their flesh, barring the taint of ancestry, will be wholesome. 
Feed others of them all the meat they will select by choice, 
allowing them all kinds to draw from at will; kill the latter 
and feed it to meat-eating animals and sores will break out 
on the body. 

The vegetarian animals are those that produce the preferred 
meats, such as beef, lamb and venison. Of these the first two 
are the only kinds in practical use. You see the limit is very 
narrow. As soon as you take flesh that has been fed on 
flesh, your blood will go to pieces, and pimples, sores, ulcers, 
tumors or cancers will form in the tissue of your body. There 
is no other cause of these maladies. Cancers often lie dor¬ 
mant until called out by such diet. Sores and pimples re¬ 
sulting from the use of such meat also lie dormant until there 
is an excess, or overheating, or too much carbonaceous food 
excites them into life. Thus, nearly all athletes of this age 


Meats and Fish 


91 


have boils or ulcers, due to excess of practice on a bad pre¬ 
vious meat diet. 

Animal life that feeds on meat cannot be safely eaten. The 
Bible made such indulgence a sin, the course of which fol¬ 
lowed into succeeding generations, as bad blood is not easily 
driven out. A hog will eat flesh wherever it can get it; be¬ 
sides which it roots by preference in filth and devours the 
most unclean stuff it can find. Let these habits be changed; 
keep the pen in better condition; serve as clean food as you 
give the cow; and the flesh of the hog will be enhanced in 
value a thousand times, while the blood dangers that arise 
from eating pork will be decreased. These are facts of fear¬ 
ful import which a few simple experiments will prove and 
place beyond the realm of doubt. 

Meat includes the flesh and the fats of animal life, as well 
as their products, such as milk, cheese, cream, butter, eggs 
honey and gelatine. Of these, honey is the farthest removed, 
and should not be considered as involving any of the proper¬ 
ties of meat. Gelatine is made of anything that comes from 
the animal that is not fit for something better, as skin, hoof, 
tissue and cartilage, and diseased, dead as well as decayed, 
animals serve in its production. It has a very slight nutritive 
value; yet the body of most of the store soups is made of this 
stuff, which people eat and wonder why it does not afford 
them strength. 

Milk contains the whole animal. If it is of the cow, it 
carries in its stream the whole make-up of the cow, as the 
mother’s milk conveys all the elements and combinations 
needed by the child to make its body. Its dilution alone 
renders it insufficient for a grown person; yet it should form 
a part of the food of daily life. As the strongest man and 
woman must in digesting each meal convert the food into 
milk before it becomes blood, it is important to assist such 
process by the use of cow’s milk, and various experiments 
show that this is helpful. The best way of taking milk is 


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with some of the grains, and this will be spoken of in another 
chapter. It is known that a very little milk will aid the 
digestion of starchy foods, as flour, rice, potatoes and wheat. 
Governments that have armies and wards to feed have 
sufficiently tested the question to settle it. The most 
strengthening of foods are the preferred grains; yet these fed 
in any way except with a slight addition of milk are not as 
nutritious, even in their own qualities, as when eaten with 
the milk. The latter may not yield any strength, yet it 
brings out the energy of the grains. 

The Scotch Highlanders are a hardy, muscle-toughened 
nation of men, women and children. They eat very little 
meat, but depend larg-ely upon grains, such as oats and 
barley cooked with milk, of which the well known porridge 
takes highest rank. A sect among the Swedes make their 
chief diet upon grain and milk. They are described as, “ tall, 
well formed, unusually powerful and of perfect health.” 
This matter is more fully discussed in a chapter devoted to 
grains. We agree that milk should not be the chief, nor even 
a main article of diet for a grown person. Its office is the 
development of young children. 

Cheese is concentrated food, but not to such an extent as 
is supposed. The babe that lives upon milk must turn the 
liquid into cheese in the stomach; and rennet, which is taken 
from the stomach of a young animal, is employed for the 
prrrpose of curdling milk in cheese making; thus showing the 
the process of digestion to be the same as that of producing 
cheese as far as milk is concerned. 

New, mild cheese made of rich milk from which no cream 
has been skimmed is the best article of animal food that exists, 
and is the least used. We have seen farmers’ families eat it 
like bread. The trouble with store cheese is its age and 
sharpness; it is old and “strong,” and is not only unfit for 
the stomach, but is not craved, and cannot be endured except 
by coarse-grained appetites. 


Meats and Fish 


93 


Cheese has no equal as a food if it is made as we have said, 
and is mild. All persons can digest it, from the babe to the 
octogenarian. It is easily assimilated by delicate stomachs, 
except in very rare cases, and then it may be taken in small 
quantities at first and increased little by little. Never use 
old cheese nor strong cheese. Never use cheese that has a 
bad odor, sometimes slight, and seems damp and clammy, or 
sog’gy to the touch. It is full of animal decay, the worst of 
all. 

Foreign cheeses are made of this stuff, dried out and 
pressed as hard as possible. Avoid them. Let us get back 
to the mild, health-giving cheese of our good old homes; 
made of rich milk, cream and all, and eaten when newly 
seasoned. It is to be deplored that such food has gone out 
of use. Like all the wholesome dishes of better days, it has 
given way to the ‘‘ long-keeping ” articles to meet the de¬ 
mands of trade. This is wrong. Trade is destroying health. 
Trade has lessened the use of fruits, man’s special blessing, 
by substituting those of little nutritive value. So with cheese. 

Cream is an animal fat consisting of oil cells which con¬ 
tain buttermilk. So-called churning breaks open the cells, 
releases the buttermilk and allows the fat to collect by itself 
as butter. The system needs some such food, although it is 
not classed among the nutritious list. 

Buttermilk contains more of the strength-giving qualities 
of the milk than all the rest of it combined, although it is 
better when taken in cream and sweet. We do not recom¬ 
mend sour buttermilk, and the other is not easily procured 
unless the butter is made from sweet cream. 

Honey is a product of the animal kingdom, but has noth¬ 
ing animal in its nature. It is a highly vitalized sweet, having 
valuable qualities as a syrup when eaten on whole wheat 
bread, toasted. The comb should be completely separated 
from it, and no part of this indigestible gum should enter the 
stomach. 


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Eggs are a problem. We have the fixed principle that the 
product of a flesh eating animal should not be used, and 
science, experiment and the teachings of the Bible all concur 
in the correctness of this law. The egg is largely composed 
of meat eaten by the hen; she is not only fed at times upon 
flesh, but spends her spare moments hunting for worms and 
insects. 

Eggs so produced are undoubtedly poisonous to the blood, 
and it cannot be argued that they are merely albuminous, 
for there is within the shell the material out of which the full- 
fledged chick is made—flesh, bones, skin, eyes, beak, feathers, 
toes and all; a rearrangement of the particles being necessary 
to the formation of the life. 

Cooking the eggs does not destroy the poison, for heat will 
not kill the pabulum on which germs feed, and it should not 
be planted in the blood of a human being to attract fatal 
bacteria. The latter are everywhere present waiting merely 
for opportunity. Cancers are the most to be feared of all 
maladies. While they are described as bacterial life, they 
cannot exist unless the condition is ripe for them. 

The flesh or product of animals that have been fed on flesh 
will provide just that condition, that taint, that pabulum or 
food which will invite the cancer germs. Not only is this the 
conclusion which history places upon the use of the products 
of flesh-eating life, but there is overwhelming evidence that it 
is true at this time. 

Deaths from cancer have been associated with excessive 
eating. We have collected what information we could, 
and have been surprised at the fact that more than what 
should be an ordinary average of victims have indulged in 
raw or soft-boiled eggs, thus enlarging the chances of danger. 
Boiling will kill most bacteria, but not the pabulum on which 
they feed. The product of flesh-eating animals furnishes 
such pabulum. No disease germ will thrive without the 
pabulum necessary to its increase. 


Meats and Fish 


95 


Pabulum is a word used by scientists to mean food for 
bacterial life, and other kinds also. The germs of disease 
are always waiting about somewhere 'for such food. We 
should fear getting the pabulum in the system more than the 
germs, for without the former the latter cannot get a foot¬ 
hold, any more than you can stay on this planet without some¬ 
thing to eat. 

Eggs are the product of flesh-eating animal life when they 
are allowed to feed on worms, insects and meat, and as such, 
they are injurious to the extent of their use. They cannot 
well be omitted in cooking, sO' we must seek the proper 
remedy. The meat of hens and chickens is more injurious 
than the eggs, if the fowls have had such food as we have 
stated. The bod}^ of a chicken completely rebuilds itself in 
a few weeks. 

To give it all needed vitality and growth, it is proper to 
allow it to run at will for animal life in the garden and lawn; 
then, if it is to be used for the market or table, place it in a 
yard where it may scratch freely and find a grain diet; wheat 
ground oats, ground corn, buckwheat, bran, cut grass, clover 
and other things being given it for variety, sometimes hidden 
under straw to keep it active and healthy. A week or two 
before killing, it should be cooped and fed with greater care. 
This is the practice among most fowl raisers, except for the 
abominable habit of giving meat to add flavor and tenderness. 

The meat and eggs of hens that are allowed to run at large, 
following cattle, hogs and horses, and to get their own living 
except for a little corn that is thrown to them daily, cannot be 
safely used. This is an age of poor blood, pimply skin and 
deficient vitality. These misfortunes are due more to the 
unfitness of the food that is eaten than to all other causes 
combined. 

It is the duty of good citizens to take steps to secure whole¬ 
some foods for themselves and their fellow beings; this 
duty is the highest and the most sacred in life, for the body is 


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The Ralston Health Club 


the temple of mind and soul, having a controlling influence 
over them both. Ill health causes irritability, from which 
wickedness, sins and crimes arise unrestrained. A low 
vitality produces indifference to everything. This is an age 
of low vitality, because the foods were never so bad and 
never so adulterated as now. 

Veal is from a vegetarian animal, but is the product of flesh 
life, as long as the calf is fed upon milk. It should not be 
killed till it has been weaned entirely, and then fed upon 
grains and grasses long enough to completely rebuild its 
body. Most persons wonder why veal is injurious. The 
above is the full explanation, agreed to by all scientists and 
investigators. 

Pork is not safe food as at present marketed. The danger 
in all meat foods is in the flesh part, if there is danger at all, 
and not in the fat. Physicians recommend the use of pork 
fat to assist in restoring the equilibrium of the nervous sys¬ 
tem, on account of its vitalized carbon, and the fat of boiled 
ham has been instrumental in effecting a temporary cure of 
neuralgia. To that extent it is useful. There are three or 
four sides to the pork question, and the following rules are 
valuable in enabling you to come to a decision: 

1. If no pork were eaten at all, the health would be better 
for it. 

2. If pork is to be eaten, a committee of your locality 
should see that the animals are grain fed and kept clean to 
avoid taking filth into their stomachs, which seems to be 
the only discernible ambition of the hog. 

3. If any part of pork is to be preferred, the fat as bacon 
and brine pork, in the form of fat rind cuts, are the best. 

4. Suckling pigs are more injurious than young veal, 
against which some States have legislated. 

5. Lard as pure fat has none of the hog or pork qualities, 
and is no more injurious than butter. 

6. A person reflects the nature of the food out of which 


Meats and Fish 


97 


the body is built. One who eats pork freely, or has a con¬ 
siderable part of the meat diet, is swinish, hoggish, lazy and 
filthy in body, mind, habits and morals; and we are glad to 
state that this condition is not so widely extended as in 
former times. 

7. Clean meats from clean animals, as lamb and beef, tend 
to make clean bodies. Lean pork never can, even under the 
best culture; for the taint of ancestry, the natural habits of 
the animal and the semi-rotten nature of the flesh, not only 
inspired the curse of God against it, but will always repulse 
the good judgment of thinking men and women. 

Ralstonism is free; it does not seek to limit or restrict its 
followers to imperative rules. As to pork, it simply states the 
facts, and suggests a tendency either to lessen the use of the 
lean part, or else see that the meat is raised in the cleanest 
manner possible. The great hog raisers of the West allow 
their swine to follow cattle,” which is the filthiest of all 
habits, makes the dirtiest meat and pays the largest profit. 
Let us think these things over and then seek courage to act 
the part of true citizens in settling this and the other prob¬ 
lems of food production. 

Suckling lambs, like pigs and calves, are the product of 
meat eating life, as milk is animal in its construction. It is, 
therefore, necessary that these three familiar articles of the 
table should have past their weaning time long enough to 
have built new flesh of vegetarian foods, or they cannot be 
safely eaten. 

Beef is the best of all meats, and lamb is the next. Both 
come from clean animals, whose diet and habits are consistent 
with the highest ideals of health. The meat should be fresh. 
Corned beef and cabbage is an old New England dinner, and 
not creditable to the taste or judgment. The corning or 
salting of meat by the brine process makes use of salt as a 
preservative, w^hich it is; but it first draws out the real value 
of the meat, leaving the toughest fiber. Fully three-fourths 
7 


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The Ralston Health Club 


of the strength-giving part has gone out into the brine, as 
analysis will show. This is true of all salted, pickled or 
brined meats. 

Kidneys are filth sponges and ducts; they never can be 
cleansed except by complete destruction. Persons who eat 
them have yellow, morbid-looking faces, yet there is a decided 
taste for them among certain classes. 

Sausages of all kinds prevail in this land; and modern 
Europe, like America, has witnessed a greatly increased use 
of them among the unthinking classes and those of lower 
intelligence, and the blood has become so vitiated that such a 
malady as la grippe, which thrives on poor blood, is cutting 
a white swath with its scythe of death and disease. 

A sausage may contain, and the average sausage does con¬ 
tain, horse, dog, cat, rat, or other outlawed animal meat; be¬ 
sides the refuse leavings that formerly went into soap. Any 
person who is at all familiar with the subject knows that any 
kind of meat that can find sale in its open condition never 
enters that hidden mass known as sausage. 

Fish has always taken high rank in all ages and among all 
peoples as an article of food. The story of the loaves and 
fishes of the New Testament well nigh covers the two “ staffs 
of life.’’ 

The preferred animal foods are beef, lamb, mild cheese, 
hens and chickens fed on grains, eggs from hens so fed, cream, 
milk, butter, honey and fish. 

A weak stomach should never have meat fiber in any form. 
The full strength can be extracted in soups, broths and stews, 
so there is no need of eating the fiber itself. Convalescents 
eating meat flesh before they have gained the full powers of 
digestion take their lives in their hands. A man’who had 
recovered from typhoid fever only far enough to walk out 
went to a restaurant for a beefsteak, ate moderately and died 
shortly after. A millionaire ex-Governor of New York State, 
while weak from heat and fatigue, took a large quantity of 


Meats and Fish 


99 


ham, with radishes and ice water, dying’ very soon after. The 
cases sustain the principle that meat fiber at its best is not 
good for the human stomach. 

What a man eats, that he is. The soul is in the body, 
tempered, influenced, sweetened or tainted by it. The blood 
builds brain, flesh, nerves, muscles, organs, tissue, skin and all 
that exists in the body, whether vital, mental or material; 
yet the blood is the daily sum total of the kind and quality of 
the food which is eaten. 

Disposition, nature and temperament come largely from 
what is eaten. The king of small birds* is able to whip the 
larger ones, simply because his temper comes from the 
hornets, on which he feeds. In the dim eras of the past, out 
of which a few meager but certain rays of light have come, 
we see the fulcrum for that leverage which was to lift man up 
to a plane far above the low and beastly condition in which 
he groveled. 

Grain and fruit were promised in the best of all species, 
and from the focus of that beginning an ever-widening path of 
progress has extended to the present time. Co-extensive with 
man’s emergence from a savage state and his gradual rise to 
a higher plane, his taste for flesh has lessened. He is still 
on the ascending road of progress, and, not in this age, but 
in some other, he will attain that better civilization which will 
drive the animal entirely out of his nature, and lead him God- 
ward. 

*The kingbird. “ It is the smartest little bird in New England. Even 
the hawk, which is such a terror to other birds, seems to be a source of 
amusement to the kingbird.” 

LofC. 


KT V 




f 


CHAPTEE THIETEEN 


Fruits and Fruit Juices 

^ THE FLOWERS AND FRUITS ^ 
•J* THAT EVERYWHERE ABOUND 
^ ARE NATURE’S LOVING SMILES ^ 
^ THE WHOLE YEAR AROUND 



N EVERY HAND we see the effort of nature to 
serve humanity. She is a blind goddess of ex¬ 
ceptionally potent energy, and of the keenest in¬ 
telligence; but, even with these qualities, she has 
her hands tied. The knowledge within her ample mind man 
must draw out; and, if he lacks the method of getting it out, 
it will stay within, and he remain helpless. 

Why fruits were ever made to "grow has been a problem. 
Men of science do not seem to be agreed in their discussion 
of their value. Perhaps the secret has never yet been made 
known; or, better still, perhaps the fruits, like the grains and 
vegetables, are in a transition state from a humble past to a 
glorious future. 

Fruits and their uses have not escaped the contradictions 
of scientists. The trouble here, as in most honest cases, is 
that theories are assumed and facts made secondary to them. 
Thus, apples are eaten one day and the results prove bene¬ 
ficial; so the theory is put forth that apples are of value in the 
diet. Later on, similar apples are eaten, and intestinal 
troubles follow, and the theory is now advanced that' apples 



Fruits and Fruit Juices 


lOI 


are injurious. It is wrong to draw conclusions without a 
knowledge of the controlling facts. 

Fruits are ordained for certain purposes. They hold an 
important place in the food plan of the human race; but not 
the most important. They perform a duty in the life of the 
body that cannot be supplied by any other agent, and their 
value in this one regard is so great that fruits must never be 
considered one evidence of the special designs of the Creator 
toward humanity. They are overpraised under false condi¬ 
tions, and they are abused because of not being properly 
used. So these would-be friends become enemies or are 
ignored. Let us come down to the facts and drop theories. 

To catch the fruit at the time when the cells have matured 
and mellowed is the whole secret. A boy died of eating an 
apple; it was a ripe apple, and the microscope showed the 
unopened fruit cells clinging to the fine inner “ hairs ” of the 
intestines, where the mischief had been done. The seeds of 
the apple appeared clearly to be ripe; but the pulp was not 
mellow; the fruit cells were hard and intact. 

Ripe apples, then, are unsafe to eat if firm and hard, and 
their injurious work may be progressing while one has no 
knowledge of it. They may attack the nervous centers, the 
ganglia, and there produce the most unaccountable cases of 
neuralgia. But their most active demonstration ocurs in the 
intestinal canal. 

Green fruits of all kinds are enemies to life. The cells are 
never fit for the stomach. No greater mistake can be made 
than to seek a covering to the taste by the use of sugar. The 
practice of eating apple sauce made of apples too hard or too 
sour to eat, but cooked soft and sweetened to taste, is the 
father of much neuralgia and rheumatism. Sugar does not 
remove the danger of the indigestible, rock-ribbed cells. 

You eat the sour apple, and the harm is done to the blood 
and nerves, whether you take sugar before, after, or with it. 
The unripened cells are there. Hiding them with sweets 


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The Ralston Health Club 


does not destroy them. It is a rule of rules that no fruit 
should ever enter the stomach unless the cells are ripened, 
mellowed and bursted open in a natural process. The seed 
may be ripe long before the cells are mellow. 

Cooking green fruit to soften it is not a natural process. 
You may cook it into shreds, but there is no bursting open 
of ripened cells, developing the rich, fragrant juice; nor is 
there that necessary condition of organized vital life. Be¬ 
tween the almost ready cell, with its first mellowness, and 
the fully matured softness there is a vast gulf, the spanning of 
which means health as against disease, as will be seen from 
explanations to be made. 

Around this important stage are three conditions : First 
that of being almost ripe; second, that of being fully ripe; 
third, that of decay. When decay follows greenness, it is rot; 
when it follows ripeness, it is fermentation. Rot is caused 
by bacteria of quite a different kind from fermentation; the 
latter having a thousand times more vitality than the former. 
They are born in fruit, after it is fully ripe and before it fer¬ 
ments, and this kind of bacteria cannot be withdrawn from the 
diet of humanity without positive injury. 

Fruit may be ripened after it has been plucked, but it must 
show, ripe seeds at the time of picking. To ripen by mere 
softening is rot, or its first stages; and to soften by cooking 
is merely a mash of undeveloped fruit cells, which are doing 
injury whether the system responds to it or not. No greater 
blessing exists than fruit. It is the gift of God. It is charged 
with various duties, which we will explain. It is not to be 
the chief diet, but if partaken of freely in any one season of 
the year, its services extend throughout the twelve months. 
Every locality has its fruits, tempered to the blood of the 
people in every zone and climate. These are to be given pref¬ 
erence whenever they can be obtained. 

Three great duties to the health of humanity are performed 
by fruit, and these do not require the use of this gift the year 


Fruits and Fruit Juices 


103 


round, although some advantages are added by such use. 
Their duties are: 

1. To build vital cells in the life of the body. 

2. To balance the electrical energy. 

3. To eliminate waste material. 

The first duty, that of building the vital cells in the life of 
the body, can only occur when the fruit itself has burst open 
its own hard-closed cells and flooded its structure with its 
juice, charged with bacterial life. Do not be alarmed at 
the word, for bacteria are merely vegetation. They are the 
ANGS and DEVS. The latter are fearfully active in destroying 
our bodies; they are ugly, voracious, vicious and fiendish in 
their operations, showing no mercy, and sparing no one if 
they can have their way. But as the devs are bad, so the 
ANGS are good, for without these tiny builders of life we could 
not live. They are just as active in their way as their enemies, 
if we get them at their best. 

Mellow, juicy, fully ripened fruits, whose cells have bursted, 
contain angs of the most energetic kind. Like the blood of 
the body, they cannot be analyzed. The chemist finds in a 
drop of protoplasmic blood the four needed elements, oxygen, 
hydrogen, nitrogen and carbon; but these four elements can¬ 
not make the drop of blood, for the vital force is non-chemi¬ 
cal; it lives, thinks, feels, has purpose, directs, commands, 
builds and propagates; all of which the chemist cannot set 
in motion out of any combination he chooses to make of the 
four elements, or any other elements. 

He is powerless. Nature is omnipotent. She furnishes 
the forces and he stands aside. He may talk about Nature 
and criticise her; but she is a being of stupendous magni¬ 
ficence, and he is so small that he cannot deviate a breath of 
the wind. Therefore, when he says that the analysis of fruit 
shows certain elements only, he is no more correct than when 
he says a drop of protoplasm is nothing but oxygen, hydro¬ 
gen, nitrogen and carbon. Beyond their mere matter, fruit 


104 


The Ralston Health Club 


cells perfectly ripened have an extraordinary power of stimu¬ 
lating vitality in the growth of the body. 

The second duty of fruit is to assist in maintaining a bal¬ 
ance in the electrical energy of the system. To live is to ex¬ 
press some form of vital electricity; there is no other process 
offered to this planet. The body is an agent of action, divisi¬ 
ble by its muscles and bones into countless operations, all 
helpless unless the nerves discharge their electrical fluid. 

The nerves themselves are mere telegraph wires, obtaining 
their power from the stored vitality of the body; and here is 
the real man, the actual life. The first necessity of existence 
is that of creating and maintaining this fund of vitality. It 
is really animal electricity. Power, thought, character, health 
and life are contained in this collection of electrical centers, 
for every part of the body is but an agent of vitality. 

While seriously differing from mechanical electricity, the 
life of the body is akin to it in its operation, and almost every 
law of the one applies to the other, and it is well known that 
positive and negative currents of this fluid are constantly 
flowing to and fro in the body. Acids are momentarily 
generated from the blood to serve in this and in other work, 
while they are as rapidly neutralized by the alkalies. 

The saliva of the mouth is the key to this balance. If the 
equilibrium is disturbed by too much alkali, there is the crav¬ 
ing for something sour. Vinegars are often taken to satisfy 
this craving, but they are not the best. The use of pickles, 
limes and vinegar-dressed cucumbers, salads and other things, 
results in weakening the nervous power of digestion, though 
a false relish at the time suggests otherwise, and the dreaded 
neuralgia may follow. Fruits, fully ripened and mellowed to 
rich juiciness, are constituted to supply the amount of acid 
needed, and this comes under the cover of other good at the 
same time. As we go northward, where greater vitality is 
demanded by the vigorous climate. Nature increases the acid¬ 
ity of her fruits. 


Fruits and Fruit Juices 105 

The third duty of fruits is to eliminate waste material. In 
some parts of the world the thirst may be satisfied entirely 
by the juice of fruits, and this is distilled water organized as 
life, enormous advantage over distilled water produced arti¬ 
ficially. Both, however, are endowed with the faculty of 
traveling in and out through all the minute avenues of the 
body, picking up the dead tissue matter that breeds disease 
and cannot be removed in any other way. 

Lying on the ground in the tropics, beneath a tree of fully 
ripe oranges, a party of travelers found a capacity for a large 
number; sucking the juice only, and deriving pleasure, suste¬ 
nance and a quenching of the thirst; while all agreed that the 
orange in its native soil tasted quite different from its impor¬ 
ted brother. Yet there is health in the one when ripe and 
nervous disorders in the other. The use of acids, vinegars, 
sour oranges, cucumbers, pickles and other forms of the same 
diet by women who crave them shows a lack of balance in the 
vitality of the system, and these substitutes for the true diet 
are productive of endless nervous derangements, traveling 
from the brain to the lower organs, and throwing much 
misery into their lives. 

Fruits follow the climate and harmonize with it, and a 
native or long resident of a place should prefer such fruits 
as grow most readily there, and such as may be made to grow 
there would stand next in value. The time of eating should 
concur with the time of ripening and full mellowing, if the 
best blood and vitality are sought ; though to hold back part 
of the crop so as to delay the mellowing period, or to check 
it by cold storage or other methods, is desirable as a second 
best plan. A long succession is always an advantage; but it 
is true that great good is done by eating very freely of fully 
ripe fruits in their season, even if no more is taken during 
the year. 

We will now discuss the merits of the various fruits that 
are obtainable here, either by growth or importation. 


io6 


The Ralston Health Club 


Apples for eating. The apple is the standard fruit of the 
temperate zone. It is found in every variety from the sweet¬ 
est to the sourest. The best apple for the individual is that 
which suits the taste. The skin should never be eaten; it is 
indigestible. The true part of the apple is closest to the skin. 
No part of the core is good, and the pulp near it should be 
discarded. Troubles, either neuralgic or intestinal, may fol¬ 
low the eating of any apple that has not been mellowed to 
softness by thorough ripening until it has a rich wine flavor. 

Taken with these precautions, the apple is the best medi¬ 
cine that can be put into the system. It is cleansing, vitaliz¬ 
ing and nutritious, and, like most fruit, has the power to sup¬ 
ply what cannot be derived from other food. An old man 
of ruddy face and clear eyes said he had eaten three mellow 
apples daily, when he could procure them, since boyhood, 
and had never known a sick hour. 

Apples for cooking. Among the many barbarisms of the 
kitchen, that which inflicts upon the innocent family sour or 
unripe apples, cooked to softness and sweetened to taste, is 
possibly the worst. No wonder the use of apples is rapidly 
decreasing. No wonder the teeth are attacked by disastrous 
acids. No wonder the nerves of the eyeballs, the hollows of 
the neck, the temples, or the crown of the head are racked 
with neuralgia. No wonder the constitutional headaches do 
not succumb to cures until deadly anaesthetics have stupefied 
the heart. No wonder the intestinal canal doubles itself up 
until it gets tired of making knots. The reasons why fruit 
is not good when mellowed by cooking, or sweetened by 
sugar, are stated in the earlier pages of this chapter. 

Peaches for eating. These stand next to apples in import¬ 
ance, and probably next to blackberries in their vitalizing 
qualities. The old fashioned seedling peaches, or some of 
them, are by far the best; for, in the anxiety of producers to 
raise varieties that are good ‘‘ keepers ” and “ shippers,” as 
well as handsome to the eye, tenderness, tameness and agree- 


Fruits and Fruit Juices 


107 

ableness have been sacrificed. Now we have large, heavy, 
coarse-grained, beautiful, but worthless peaches, and the 
public taste has fallen off considerably. To be fit to eat, a 
peach should be white, fine-grained, thin-skinned, stone free, 
mildly sweet and dead ripe. It should not shock the palate, 
but ought to afford pleasure at the first bite. 

Peaches for cooking. It is necessary to start with fully 
ripe fruits as a basis. The skin and pit should be discarded. 
Rotten places should not be cut out; let them stay in, and 
throw the’whole peach away. The supposed decay of an 
overripe peach is merely the full softening of the flesh just 
prior to fermentation, and is delicious; though, of course, 
fermentation will spoil it. Green fruit should not be used 
in any form of cooking, for preserves, jams, jellies, or other 
things. When fully ripe to start with, the addition of sugar 
as a means of preservation is not objectionable, but desirable. 

Grapes for eating. If but few grapes are at hand, it is not 
at all injurious to eat all the contents, except the skin. But 
it is better to take plentifully of this fruit, for it is a direct 
blood maker; besides which it carries iron and vital nutrition 
into the body; and the proper way of taking grapes for such 
benefits is to adopt the following plan: Squeeze the skins as 
nearly dry as possible to get out the most valuable part; then, 
in a separate dish, drop the pulps so as to shake off the juice 
clinging to them, and also as much of the pulp flesh as is free. 
Then throw away the seeds and close pulp, for the latter is 
quite sour. All the juice may now be put together and mixed 
well; then placed in a jar around which ice is packed. When 
quite cold, it is ready to drink, and it may be taken as plenti¬ 
fully as you desire. Persons suffering from lack of blood 
will find no equal to this. We are sorry to say that the grape 
juice of soda fountains and of commerce is not safe to take, 
and will do more mischief than the absence of all fruit. 

Some grapes are not good. The little Catawbas are among 
them. The Delawares are fair only. The best is the cheap- 


io8 


The Ralston Health Club 


est and the most abundant, the well-known Concord variety. 
To be good, it should remain upon the vine until a full, deep 
bloom of blue dust overspreads it. There are many seed¬ 
lings of the Concord, most of which are as good, and two or 
three better. The lighter colored grapes are not very bene¬ 
ficial. 

Blackberries for eating. Probably no fruit comes so near 
to the results of food production as the blackberry. This 
fruit was the first to be created, as far as geology discloses 
its history, and like the blessed wheat is seen in rock fossils 
of long ages ago. It waited man’s advent upon this planetary 
arena. It is one of the few things that man injures by 
attempts at improvement, for he seeks large, firm berries that 
will ship well and keep well—the very qualities that prevent 
ripening and mellowing. A blackberry should be dead ripe, 
and free from core, or else the hard center should be dis¬ 
carded. 

Blackberries for cooking. Given the queen of all fruits, 
the housekeeper places before us the worst condition in which 
they can be found; berries black but hard, berries dark red, 
berries light red, berries green in spots, and we are asked 
to eat them in pies and other preparations that might have 
entranced us with delight, but for the barbarism displayed 
in the selection. 

A few good blackberries by themselves are better than a 
few good ones mixed with some bad ones. It is that hard un¬ 
ripe berry that sours our zeal as it shocks the palate. It is 
unfit for the system. While it is very difficult, if not almost 
impracticable, to obtain uniformly ripe and mellow fruit, it 
is nevertheless done, and even at the markets such berries are 
found. Never cook a hard one. Like the peach, this fruit 
is best when just passing the fully ripe stage. 

Pears for eating. A sour pear has no place in Nature. 
This fruit does not mellow well upon the tree. Its seeds show 
the period of ripeness, at which time it should be picked and 


Fruits and Fruit Juices 


109 


laid aside to soften. It mellows quickly under certain con¬ 
ditions. Even the supposed sour pears are very palatable 
and sweet when allowed to come close to the fermenting 
stage. When soft and juicy, they may be eaten freely, even 
to the limit of one’s capacity, and their cleansing effect upon 
the kidneys is surprising. Our most recent experiments at 
Hopewell prove that the Duchess is the best of pears. 

Pears for cooking. If this fruit is ripe at the seeds when 
used, it does not matter if the flesh is hard, for the cells of 
the pear do not create such commotion in the system as those 
of the apple. Green pears are always to be avoided. Some 
cooks make use of windfalls, worm-eaten and undeveloped 
fruit, supposedly for economy; but as the result is a dangerous 
concoction in any form, having no value whatever, and wast¬ 
ing the good things used with it, the money-saving idea is 
swamped. 

Plums and apricots. The latter are not readily obtainable 
in some States, although they can generally be grown where- 
ever peaches thrive. They are excellent for eating and cook¬ 
ing. Plums are the worst of foods when used contrary to the 
rules laid down, and among the best otherwise, though none 
can hold rank for a moment with the five great stars—black¬ 
berries, grapes, apples, peaches and pears. A plum is a mean 
thing if it is not dead ripe and soft to the very point of fermen¬ 
tation. Try it. Try any variety at the different stages; when 
green, it is sour enough to raise the roof of your mouth; when 
ripe, it still incites you to tears; when softened, it is yet 
unpalatable; when mellowed, you begin to like it; when dead 
mellow, and the cells have all bursted and died, it is the nectar 
of the gods, full of flavor, fragrance, ozmazome and rich in 
vitality. 

Cherries for eating. It is one of the laws of Nature that the 
farther south we go the less acids we need to maintain our 
electrical equilibrium, and the less vitality we have. The 
reasons are fully explained in our high-degree works on mag- 


no 


The Ralston Health Club 


netism. Cherries in Italy surpass any in the world; they are 
large, sweet, full blooded, capable of quenching thirst, and 
may be eaten to excess without fear of injury. 

Such cherries might be raised in our own Southern States, 
but are not. Still America has some delightful varieties, 
and the fruit is of importance in vitalizing and cleansing the 
system. If fully ripe, mellow and sweet, they should be in¬ 
dulged in as long and as much as the appetite permits. The 
fear of eternal disaster when milk is taken with cherries is 
groundless if the fruit is dead ripe. 

Cherries for cooking. Green or hard fruit should be 
avoided. The fact that hard, sour cherries make better jelly 
argues against the use of the jelly, and it is a discreditable 
method that drives all fruits out of public favor. Flavor, 
sweetening and cooking may succeed in satisfying a false 
relish, but the fact remains that fruits are not used as freely 
as they were, because for many years the policy in cooking 
has been to discard ripe and mellow fruit for that which is 
green and hard. Every family should make its own preserves 
and jellies, taking care to use only the best. 

Strawberries. Here we have a problem. As in the case of 
apples, some physicians say use them freely and others say 
avoid them altogether; yet we have shown wherein there 
is the middle ground and the safe one. Apples eaten with¬ 
out judgment or knowledge of what they are will produce 
injury; while, if mellow, ripe and softened almost to fermen¬ 
tation, they are among the best friends of humanity. Straw¬ 
berries confer but a few blessings upon the system, and the 
quickest way to secure a bad case of headache or neuralgia 
is to use the early kinds which are ahead of the season, or 
the usual market varieties. 

The reason for this danger is found in the fact that straw¬ 
berries are very cooling to the blood, and suit the tempera¬ 
ture from about June lo to July 15. The sour varieties, 
as well as those that are not very ripe and fully red, destroy 


Fruits and Fruit Juices 


III 


the blood’s vitality by a sort of poison generated by unde¬ 
veloped fruit cells, whose tendency is to rot rather than grow. 
Fruit undergoes a complete revolution in value in the brief 
interim between the unopened cell and the mellowed flesh. 
If strawberries are to be eaten at all, they should be fully red, 
sweet and ripe, and should be perfectly agreeable to the taste 
without sweetening. 

Raspberries and dewberries are not useful except in their 
season. Preserves and jam are made of the former, but they 
are dead fruit in all respects as far as hygienic qualities are 
concerned. 

Blueberries, hxickleberries and similar fruits have consider¬ 
able value in their season; except that the use of the skins 
and seeds is objectionable, although unavoidable. For pre¬ 
serving, the only good attainable is by keeping the juice in an 
unfermented condition; but there seems to be no use for it 
in that form. 

Currants and gooseberries are not beneficial except to 
counteract the excess of heating foods which are required in 
cold climates. In England, where the summers are short, 
sour gooseberry tarts are the dream of the people, and dietary 
life revolves about that center; but rheumatism and neuralgia 
stalk ruthlessly through the land. 

Fruit cultivation. In the Ralston Ideal City, mentioned 
in a high-degree book of the Club, it is suggested that every 
home should have free access to light and air on all sides, a 
plot for flowers in front and a vegetable garden and orchard 
in the rear. In this country, where land is plenty, the crowds 
huddle into the cities seeking wealth, but finding poverty in 
many instances. He who can raise all he needs to eat is 
independent, and the intelligent cultivator of the soil is the 
king of America. There is every reason why the bright men 
should do now as did George Washington and the opulent 
classes of his day, make life in the country social and stylish, 
and compel the ground to yield a full support. We have 
already done this as may be seen in the present book. 


II2 


The Ralston Health Club 


Fruits as well as vegetables can never taste as well nor give 
so much vitality as when raised at home and picked fresh for 
use. A trailing vine of grapes, trimmed severely back every 
year furnishes a large supply of this fruit, can be used for 
covering an arched trellis, and will afford shade as well as 
ornamentation. Pears and apples may be raised most every¬ 
where. Blackberries are nearly universal fruit. Peaches are 
grown in a majority of the States; cherries in many of them. 
Here are the favorite fruits. When God established these 
grand blessings for man’s use. He did not intend that they 
should be propagated for harness and long keeping or ship¬ 
ping qualities, then picked green, sold green and eaten green, 
thus robbing them of their virtue for the sake of mere com¬ 
mercial value. All this is a travesty on the design of the 
Creator; and poverty will reign until rnan, endowed with 
intelligence, seeks harmony with Nature. 

Dangers from eating fruit can never occur when it is ripe, 
mellow, soft and not sour. The youngest child or oldest 
adult, or any person of any age, can eat until the appetite 
is surfeited, if the conditions are those we have presented, and 
the fruit is grown in the climate where eaten. Two quarts of 
peaches, pears, cherries, grapes or very ripe apples, taken 
daily, are not an excessive diet of fruit in their season. We 
advised a white, pale-faced, bloodless-looking woman, rapidly 
declining into consumption to eat two to three pounds of 
Concord grapes every day for a month, and her body as well 
as health passed through a revolution. Everybody said it 
was a ‘‘ miracle.” Simple Nature! 

Green fruit should never be preserved or canned, not even 
if it is buried in sugar. The first consideration is to see that 
the fruit is wholesome and fit to eat, rather than to seek a 
condition that favors long keeping; and the next is to pre¬ 
serve it in the most available way. Jellies, jams, butters and 
other methods are not objectionable, if the fruit is ready to 
eat before it is so prepared. 


Fruits and Fruit Juices 113 

Avoid the purchase of sour, hard canned fruits, or such as 
seem to have been softened by cooking. An interesting test 
may be made by using canned peaches that were ripe and 
mellow when put in the can, as compared with others that 
were cooked into mellowness before being canned. The 
latter, if eaten plentifully, will cause severe neuralgia; the 
former under like conditions will not. 

Adulterations are universal in the fruits offered on the 
market in such shape as apple sauce, marmalade, jams, jellies, 
etc. The canned goods are treated with cheap glucose syrup, 
where any adulteration is present; but the greater objection 
of unripeness at the time of canning outweighs this. The 
various apple sauces are made of refuse hard apples,-relieved 
slightly by poisonous glucose. Out of a hundred brands of 
jams, jellies and marmalades, we did not find one free from 
adulteration. 

Certain fruit flavors may be imitated by chemicals, and 
these are allied with refuse glue, horse-hoof gelatine, garbage 
glucose and apple sauce in order to produce the delicate “ pre¬ 
serves ” so often brilliantly illuminated by the printer’s art. 
Avoid all jellies, jams, marmalades, apple sauces and other 
“ store ” preparations, unless you wish to ruin your blood. 
This is an age of arrant and reckless adulterations, rapidly 
displacing goods, concocted by the merciless invention of 
man, who knows well enough that to put dollars in his pocket 
lives must be sacrificed and health destroyed. 

Foreign fruits are not subject to the same rules, for the 
reason that they must be picked a long time in advance and 
come from other climates where they are less vigorous. The 
grapes are barely palatable, and certainly devoid of value, 
never fully ripening, even here. The oranges of Florida and 
California, if dead ripe, are beneficial if the juice and not the 
pulp or flesh be taken. Figs and dates have a value as laxa¬ 
tives in some cases, but are unsafe, owing to their micro¬ 
scopic life. Raisins are a stimulant, but are likewise inhabi- 
8 


114 


The Ralston Health Club 


ted, and in some cases severe sickness has followed their free 
use. 

Pineapples are the best of the foreign fruits. They must 
be as nearly ripe as possible when picked, and must then mel¬ 
low here in the sun until soft. It is better not to swallow the 
flesh or flbrous pulp. This fruit is excellent for irritated 
throat, its juice being very healing. 

Bananas are a sort of bread fruit in their native climate, 
and, without doubt, are of a high nutritive value, for they 
serve as food; but they lack the vitalizing force of our local 
fruits which are not intended for food. A banana has very 
little of the resisting, pugnacious cell structure which makes 
such fruit as the apple injurious, unless fully ripened; yet 
it should be both ripe and soft when eaten. Those who have 
tasted this fruit, both in its native clime and here, are agreed 
that it has none of the flavor, satisfaction or qualities here 
that exist there. The reason is that it must be picked green, 
shipped a long distance and ripened here. Again commerce 
overreaches itself; it sends the bananas too green. They 
might be ripening in the ship’s hold on the voyage, but, in¬ 
stead, they come here dead green, are put into the damp, 
diseased, foul, malarious cellars of dirty dagos who are un¬ 
able to distinguish between cleanliness and vermin, and there 
they ripen, absorbing the poisons of their most unwholesome 
surroundings. 

In former years, it was the custom to land bananas, fully 
or nearly ripened on the voyage, and they were much more 
popular then than now. To eat the present article is to court 
sickness, and possible death; though it is fair to state that if 
the fruit is not shriveled and seems tender and not tough 
at the core, it may be eaten sparingly after a good meal. But 
we have abundant proofs of violent illness and sudden death 
due to indulgence in bananas on an empty stomach. 

As all readers and students appreciate a few brief state¬ 
ments by way of review, we will collect the most important 


^'ruits and Fruit Juices 


115 

from the present chapter and place them in short passages; 
suggesting, however, the careful rereading of all that pre¬ 
cedes. 

To make blood, take daily a half pint of unfermented juice 
of the Concord grape, being sure it was extracted from fully 
ripened grapes. 

To put iron in the blood depend on sweet, freestone peaches, 
eaten overfreely in their season, and sparingly at other times; 
avoiding the canned article of the stores, as the fruit must 
be dead ripe when prepared. ' 

To help a weak throat, cure a cough by healing, and 
strengthen the membrane, use the juice of a ripe pineapple 
which has been sweetened in the sun by hanging for days in a 
window. Add sugar to taste. 

To cool the blood for the summer heat, indulge freely in 
fully ripe cherries in their season, avoiding those that are tart 
or too acid, as all sour fruit, especially if the cells have not 
bursted, will produce neuralgia and intestinal troubles. 

To cleanse the kidneys for a year ahead, allowing for due 
care in diet during that time, overeat of the best pears in their 
season which extends from August to November or later. 
Avoid eating too many of the extra sweet pears. You can¬ 
not overeat with danger such varieties as the Duchess and 
Bartlett. Every orchard should be planted with Duchess 
pear trees, as their health-giving qualities exceed all others. 

To acquire the best nerve life, eat all the dead-ripe black¬ 
berries you dan get in their season, avoiding the sour, pulpy 
cores. By many interesting experiments it has been proved 
that life may be sustained on very little food with blackberries; 
the preferred grains being best as aids, and a new body could 
be easily built. 

Any unbursted fruit cell is an enemy to health. When 
fruit is dead ripe the cells have all bursted open and no injury 
can follow except through too much acid, which hurts both 
blood and nerves. 


ii6 The Ralston Health Club 

Avoid store goods, such as jams, jellies, marmalades, pre¬ 
serves and others. They are so often dangerous by reason 
of adulteration, despite their beautiful appearance, that you 
cannot afford to take chances. Do not believe what your 
grocer tells you, as he is as often deceived as others, and, poor 
innocent man, he fights hard to sell the goods, but he does not 
know. A storekeeper who protests too hotly is deliberately 
dishonest. His anger is his remorse. 

Put up fruits at home, if you can or cannot grow them. 
Save money by so doing. But by all means, save money by 
not buying unfit fruit. Better none than bad. 

This is an age of dishonesty, adulteration, greed and ras¬ 
cality in the preparation of goods of all kinds for the market. 
Flour, grains, fruits, delicacies, and everything that the devil 
ingenuity of man can touch, are made harmful and dangerous, 
though too often quietly so, at a time when the decadent 
health of the people requires honest nutrition, and wherever 
the government seeks to investigate such things the corrupt 
politicians, with whom this country is swarming, “ doctor ” 
the reports to suit the rich adulterators and fatten themselves. 

What a glorious opportunity for the two grandest profes¬ 
sions of life! He who tills the ground, or he who takes 
honest foods and fruits therefrom and makes them ready for 
human necessity, deserves the title of Doctor of Humanity, 
the noblest within the gift of the race or of God himself. He 
who is incorruptible in the midst of scoundrels, who can go 
freehanded to the legislative halls of our States or Congress, 
and there fight without compromise for the protection of 
every citizen of his country from the highest to the humblest, 
in all matters of health, home, liberty and property, is a 
STATESMAN ; and the country is looking to-day for such men. 
Here are the two grandest professions of life. 

Who of our members will enter either of these noble pro¬ 
fessions and fight for the magnificent results that are sure to 
reward their honest efforts? 


CHAPTEE FOUETEEN 


What to Drink 

•J* WE OUGHT TO DRINK FOR TWO PURPOSES 

•j- ^ the first is to relieve thirst 

the next is to provide nutrition ^ ^ 



I EVER SINCE MANKIND first sought the advan¬ 
tages of civilization, have there been so many 
varieties of drink prepared for the stomach as at the 
^present time; and the increase is still going on. 
The first great object of drinking is to provide the system 
with hydrogen. This is a food element, and must be had 
daily in large quantities. If it is denied, the activity within 
the body which maintains its life, will be checked, and soon 
cease. 

Any method by which hydrogen may be got into the system, 
without attendant dangers, is sufficient to satisfy nature; and 
the taking of any liquid that does not provide this element, 
is outside the realm of judgment, unless it is a form of nutri¬ 
ment. Distilled liquors are mostly carbon, or their equiva¬ 
lent, and consequently are foreign to the purposes of a drink. 
Alcohol burns itself completely up in a flame, while hydrogen 
in water quenches fire; showing the two to be opposites. 

When people will remember these facts, and use drinks for 
the purposes for which they were intended by nature, there 
will be much better health among them. So large a pro¬ 
portion of the body is water that its health may be said to 
depend more on what is drank than on what is eaten. Blood 
and flesh are nearly all water, and even the bones, which are 



ii8 The Ralston Health Club 

supposed to be dry, contain much moisture. The oils and fat 
of the body, mingled with the liquids, furnish the lubricants 
necessary for easy action; let these be changed by improper 
food, and you will suffer the horrors of rheumatism, swollen 
muscles and inflamed joints. Your blood may make and may 
cure all these maladies. Everything depends primarily on 
what you eat and what you drink. 

Bone diseases are altogether too common. A bone must 
have minerals of its own. kind, not the foreign minerals con¬ 
tained in most drinking waters. No more mineral matter 
should be taken into the system than the mineral structures 
require. All else is superfluous, and does injury by clogging 
the veins, blood vessels, arteries and tissue-life, even of the 
brain, causing what is known as age. In fact, the true symp¬ 
toms of age are due to nothing but this. The grains and 
other foods supply all that the body requires, so that pure 
water is a thing of necessity. Mineral medicinal waters are 
not only not pure, but are rapid producers of age, and even 
may cause the very ills they promise to cure. Some are chemi^ 
cally doctored, to give certain immediate results that are not 
permanent. Most mineral waters are analyzed from'“sam¬ 
ples ” specially prepared. 

Medicinal waters, mineral waters and other advertised 
kinds of drinks, usually proclaimed as beneficial to the health, 
possess only the quality of being less injurious than the water 
procured from wells or furnished by the city and town reser¬ 
voirs. Periodicals derive sufficient income from advertising 
such fluids to induce them to make the idea fashionable. The 
rule still remains unchanged that proper foods contain all 
the mineral substance the body needs, and the attempt to add 
more by what we drink is sure to hasten the approach of old 
age. Those who use table waters for years furnish a proof 
of this fact. 

Pure water may be bottled and shipped to all parts of the 
land; and, if known by tests to be absolutely pure, such 


What to Drink 


119 

water should be preferred, for it would aid the process of 
health and do very much toward driving- out disease. A 
glass of pure water taken on arising in the morning, and 
another at night before retiring, is better than the best medi¬ 
cine. By pure water is meant such as is free from matter 
either foreign to the system or not needed by it. 

The best water to drink is rain water if it can be collected 
in a proper manner. We know that it is chemically pure 
when it leaves the clouds, as may be ascertained by examining 
snow, for the latter has no opportunity of absorbing odors and 
substance until it reaches the liquid state. As distilled water 
picks up poison and odors as easily as do cream and milk, 
so rain water will do the same; but there is nothing dele¬ 
terious in an elevated atmosphere free from smoke. When 
rain water is caught from the roof of a house, no matter how 
thoroughly the roof may be washed by the first hours of 
storm, there is always something left which its absorbent 
activity will draw to itself, and it has a yellow color with a 
slightly astringent taste. This may occur even when the 
rain falls through the leaves of the trees. That neither con¬ 
dition is unwholesome is proved by the better health which 
comes from drinking rain water, although it is unpalatable 
at first. A taste for it is soon acquired, and it is then pre¬ 
ferred to others. 

Pure water must eventually be adopted by intelligent com¬ 
munities as one of the great agencies of avoiding disease, and 
the question will of necessity resolve itself into using only the 
following kinds of pure water: 

1. Rain water, filtered through sand and rock, but free 
from living matter and minerals. This is first and best. 

2. Rain water, caught by artificial means. 

3. Distilled water, thoroughly aerated. 

In addition to life in water, which may or may not be in¬ 
jurious, there must be a pabulum, or food for such life, and 
this is usually harmful to human blood. Bringing the water to 


120 


The Ralston Health Club 


the boiling point will destroy the living nature of the germs, 
but will not remove their carcasses nor change the pabulum; 
so that the use of boiled water is closely allied to the voracious 
devouring of a microscopic graveyard, sometimes including 
the gravestones themselves. Yet it is far better to take the 
carcasses than the living bodies. 

Let us look closely into the problems of securing pure 
water to drink. The first and best is the hardest to obtain. 
It is rain water filtered by Nature. The filter should be made 
of sand and rock. Occasionally such a spring is found, and, 
when known to be pure, every precaution should be used to 
save it for the benefit of man. A microscope should be 
owned by every physician, and one large enough to detect 
bacteria ought not to be beyond the purse of the humblest 
practitioner. If no doctor possesses a sufficiently powerful 
microscope, your school board should secure one as a means 
of public school education. Let the springs be examined 
for miles around; and, if one is discovered that proves to be 
rain water filtered through sand or rock, cement it up, shut 
off all surface drainage in case of rain, and allow it to flow 
in and out of a miniature reservoir. This will be the turning 
point in the health of the people in your community. 

While all water in and on the earth is the result of rain 
directly or indirectly, most of it ceases to be such in fact. The 
real rain water is that which is closest to its condition as it 
leaves the clouds, except that it will be endowed with an ab¬ 
sorbent activity seeking to establish a certain kind of equi¬ 
librium. A pond or lake may be the result of nothing but 
rains which have washed together over a tract of sloping 
land into a hollow. From this the sun is continually drawing 
vapors, taking up the good and leaving the bad; and the bad 
that is left may be free from minerals, and yet contain bacteria 
with an enormous amount of pabulum. Such ponds and 
lakes, we regret to say, furnish water for the towns and 
cities of America, and the doctor’s signs are multiplying while 


What to Drink 


I2I 


the purse of the struggling family is hungry for the where¬ 
withal to purchase the ordinary comforts of life. 

Again we are told by scientists that boiled water is safe to 
take. This is a very limited piece of information. It assumes 
that the only disease-breeding element in water is bacterial. 
Out of one hundred waters collected from as many different 
places, not more than two would be likely to bring any dis¬ 
order to the system that could be averted by boiling. Such 
waters as are imbibed by the citizens of New York and Phila¬ 
delphia contain disease-producing qualities far beyond the 
reach of the boiling process. They attack the organs, the 
blood, the veins, and above all, the digestive functions. Life 
in Philadelphia and New York would be less sickly and more 
enjoyable, if this chief requirement of the health were more 
nearly pure. 

A child comes into the world endowed with a vitality double 
that of inheritance, yet it has only one chance in two of living. 
Whether nursed by its mother or fed with prepared food, 
it has to take the water that its mother drinks, or the water 
that the cow drinks, or the water that is used in mixing its 
food; and unless these are pure, a struggle for existence must 
begin at once. Many babies die from tuberculosis caught 
from cow’s milk, and many others survive an attack of the 
malady, only to go through life with shrunken lungs. The 
horrible sufferings of some children because of intestinal 
troubles have been terminated in a day by a change to pure 
drinking water, and instances are not few where a change in 
the drinking water of the cow has brought relief to the 
child. 

These things are too momentous to be lightly read and 
passed. You owe the duty to the community in which you 
live to be one of those who will exert an increasing influence 
to the end that pure water, and only pure water, shall be used 
for drinking purposes. We do not mean to make reference 
to the temperance question. That solves itself when the 


122 


The Ralston Health Club 


body, the blood and the nervous system are in their normal 
health. Many an intemperate man has lost all taste for alco¬ 
hol by acquiring a pure body through the practice of Ralston- 
ism. So the tobacco habit yields to perfect health. 

Amid the splendid achievements of the American people the 
sad fact remains that they have made no genuine attempt to 
solve the water question. Ill health is the rule, not the excep¬ 
tion. Far sighted in matters of the purse, they are thoroughly 
indifferent when the sacred temple of life is being undermined. 
One case may be cited as a representative one. A lady whose 
husband had saved a few thousand dollars in forty years of 
struggle was rapidly failing. Suggestions of health proffered 
to her before had been spurned with a tip of the nose. Now 
she asked her husband to take her to a sanitarium where the 
expense would be twenty-five dollars a day, and challenged 
his love to that extent. It probably meant the poorhouse 
for both of them after the senseless experiment had been tried. 
A Ralstonite called on the couple and said to her: “If the 
sanitarium should restore your health you would lose it again, 
for your manner of living would break down the most vigor¬ 
ous constitution.” They resolved to use a little judgment, 
just a very little, by way of trial, to see if there was anything 
in the idea that sense was more valuable than nonsense, and to 
their surprise they found such to be the case. The first 
change was in their drinking water. They secured some 
excellent spring water and adopted a few Ralston ideas. The 
old man’s money is still in the bank, and the wife says: “ Had 
I not been indifferent to my health in the years past I would 
have escaped much suffering, and we would now have several 
thousand dollars more than have gone to doctors and medi¬ 
cines, all on my account.” What right had that woman to 
send her husband to the poorhouse simply to gratify her 
whim for needless doctoring? 

The drinking water question solves the greater problem of 
health more often than we suppose. The brain tissue is a 


What to Drink 


123 


network of a million or more of the most sensitive fibers, 
through which play the blood vessels that supply the nutrition 
of this engineer of life. So small are the passages that only the 
clearest blood ought ever to be sent through them. Drink¬ 
ing water, with its lime or other minerals, passes more 
quickly into the circulation than food, and the delicate brain 
is the first to be affected. Calcareous matter, which is in 
almost all hard water, soon leaves its fine film of clogging 
substance in the small vessels of the brain, and irritability 
follows, gradually leading on tO' mental imbecility. Except 
in cases of inherited insanity, it is nearly always true that brain 
troubles are associated with what fluids go into the system, 
and communities where hard water is used furnish the greater 
number of candidates for the asylum. Most all inherited 
cases of insanity would have remained dormant but for some 
exciting cause, of which this may be one. Hard water leaves 
its deposit on the interior of kettles that contain it; and doing 
the same in the fine blood vessels of the brain cannot help 
clogging them, and thus rendering the mind a crippled en¬ 
gine. 

Ice water is coming to be recognized by the best physicians 
as a great help to the system. The only danger is in its free 
use, or in taking a large quantity at once. A single swallow 
of very cold ice water not only does no harm, but it is bene¬ 
ficial to the mouth, palate and throat, if either held or dropped 
quickly into the stomach. To drink several swallows at once 
will lower the vitality of the heart, and out of the excessive 
drinking of ice water many a life has been wantonly sacri¬ 
ficed. If you are tired out from physical or other effort, the 
vitality is already low, and this is the case when you are 
fatigued from excessive heat, and to drink a glass or two 
of ice water may so depress the heart as to stop it. There is 
nothing to keep it going except its own impulse, and this can¬ 
not safely be interfered with. Fever of the blood, inflam¬ 
mation of the stomach and a high temperature of the mouth 


124 


The Ralston Health Club 


are allayed by the use of ice water in isolated swallows, or 
even by holding ice in the mouth. The leading physicians 
prescribe it. Ice is playing its important part in the cure of 
fevers. In the case of infants who are teething a half-hourly 
drink of ice water is of immense help, and is soon craved. 
Most young babies cry for water, yet are denied it through 
ignorance and are drugged to sleep. 

Tea drinking has subsided to a great extent in the present 
generation, owing to three causes. First, it is known that 
the ^ quieting’’ effect of tea on the system goes so far as to 
depress the private organs and partly paralyze the valve 
leading from the bladder. This was attended by certain re¬ 
sults known as “old women’s malady,” but also affecting 
old men and children who are tea drinkers. Second, tea 
introduces into the system certain ingredients that are foreign 
to it, and that must be fought out at great expense of vitality. 

The adulterations of tea are silica, metallic iron, dead tea, 
common leaves, catechu, prussian blue, indigo, turmeric, 
kaolin, steatite, graphite, gypsum, chalk, and other things, 
and so generally is this adulteration carried on that it has 
given rise to fixed industries in America and England. No 
Chinaman traveling in this country will drink its tea; but the 
wealthy classes bring their own article with them here. To 
carry to China the best and so-called purest of teas found 
here, and offer them there for a beverage, would lead to ridi¬ 
cule, if not to punishment for dealing in poisons. If you ever 
happen to visit the Orient and taste the genuine tea of the 
clime where Nature produces it, you will know what is meant 
by these statements. 

Coffee drinking has very largely increased in the present 
generation, and for several reasons. In the first place, tea 
so depresses the vitality, besides leading to organic difficulties 
and to constipation, that its sister beverage, coffee, has come 
to take its place. The latter has some nutrition, some stimu¬ 
lating power, and some poisonous matter; but when taken 


What to Drink 


125 


in moderation, it is not as injurious as when drank to excess 
as is the case with certain persons who lack the will power 
to depend on more natural food for their sustenance. It is 
a universal rule, to which we have never seen an exception, 
that no person becomes an excessive coffee drinker, nor an 
excessive user of stimulants of any kind, who eats only the 
wholesome foods. The coffee drinkers are often those who 
eat the very worst kinds of food, and are not able to take the 
best kinds. 

Extract of coffee, or what is sometimes called essence of 
coffee, is a direct poison capable of producing death. It is 
found in candies that are said to be flavored with coffee, and 
very largely in cereals prepared as substitutes. What are 
known as the best grains, wheat, barley, corn, buckwheat, 
etc., are made into a condition resembling ground coffee and 
given a proportion of the extract poison, thus producing a 
mixture far worse than the straight coffee itself. To add to 
the unwholesomeness of cereals, they are coated with a chemi¬ 
cal to prevent worms from eating them; and this chemical 
will likewise render the stomach juices useless in the digestion 
of any food that may be present at the same time. Break¬ 
fast foods are often coated with a similar chemical that is 
poisonous to worms; it preserves the food at the expense of 
the human stomach. 

Lemonade is suitable as an occasional drink for those who 
need more acid in the system, or who crave the taste of it; 
but most persons cannot add much acid to the blood without 
danger of incurring an attack of neuralgia. It is adapted to 
hot weather, as it cools the body to a slight degree. Fruit 
lime juice is better if it is known to be pure. Nearly all 
bottled goods are adulterations. 

Soda water, if used at all, should be taken without syrup. 
The flavors are not pure. Do not believe they are, even if 
the vender should assert that he personally knows them to 
be immaculate. The syrups of soda fountains and the ex- 


126 


The Ralston Health Club 


tracts sold at your grocery include compound ethers, acetic 
acid, tincture of orris root, red aniline, nitric ether, oil of bitter 
almond, prussic acid, acetate of amyl, anise oil, tartaric acid, 
yellow aniline, vanaline, extract of capsicum, mineral red and 
other poisons. We live in an age of fraud. In order to make 
money, the manufacturers are willing to endanger the health 
of their fellow beings, and many a rich man prays for sleep 
at night under a roof that has been built out of the sufferings 
of men, women and children whom he has robbed by his cun¬ 
ning adulterations. 

Beers and liquors are very much in favor with the igno¬ 
rant masses and the whippoorwills of wealth. More than 
a hundred kinds of poisons are used in the adulterations of 
these alcoholic drinks, which are destroying the kidneys. 
When once the outer walls of these organs are eaten away 
there is no hope. In the words of a well known doctor, 
'‘After Bright’s disease has become fully developed, there is 
generally not much to do but to get ready for the under¬ 
taker.” Another physician of wide practice, whose skill and 
ability are beyond question^ says: “There are doctors who 
recommend beer drinking to their patients, seemingly not 
knowing that they are aiding to increase the now uncon¬ 
trollable and always fatal malady, Bright’s disease.” This 
means that the malady is always fatal when fully developed. 
Almost any poison, or material that is not good, will lead up 
to this disease, but not so rapidly as alcohol and its adultera¬ 
tions. 

BRAN-LEMONADE 

The most nourishing drink for the brain and nervous sys¬ 
tem, as well as for the general vitality, is what is called 
“ Ralston Bran Lemonade.” This is made in the same 
way as lemonade, excepting that the water has been made 
almost of the consistency of milk by being mixed with bran 
and standing at least six hours. The use of bran water for 


What to Drink 


127 


drinking purposes is not likely to become popular, as it is too 
simple in its composition; but let any person whose brain is 
tired or is overworked or wearied from any employment that 
saps the vitality take a glass of bran water, either with or with¬ 
out the lemonade, and the result will be surprising. Owing 
to the great predominance of phosphorus in bran, the ner¬ 
vous system as well as vitality of body and brain are quickly 
nourished, and the eyes become bright and all weariness de¬ 
parts. Persons who are easily fatigued during the day should 
drink bran water occasionally. Shop girls, clerks, people of 
sedentary habits and care-worn mothers will become new 
being under the influence of phosphorus taken in this way; 
while on the other hand any phosphates taken in medicinal 
drinks or liquid form sold as medicine will be found to be 
deorganized and therefore injurious to the health. Never 
take into the system any deorganized elements. 

HOW TO MAKE BRAN-LEMONADE 

You should get some small flouring mill to save you the 
bran; or it can be purchased of any grain dealer. One pint 
of bran in two quarts of water should be boiled five minutes, 
then strained through cheese cloth, and allowed to stand an 
hour or two in order to settle. Add ice; and, if you prefer, 
add lemons and sugar. 

Food drinks are coming into use; and their value will de¬ 
pend much on their composition. We have no faith in the 
advertised nerve and other kinds of drinks, some of which are 
calledhonics. The root beers that have no ferment to them, 
and that are made from wholesome roots, may be valuable 
in a degree, and are much to be preferred to fermented beers. 

Too much uncertain stuff is taken into the system; and the 
person is wisest who knows what he is drinking. It is a safe 
rule to let things alone when there is no knowledge of what 
they contain. 

Hot drinks are required by some persons to get the system 


128 


The Ralston Health Club 


g'oing', when it is chilled. In normal health the desire is for 
something to cool the system, even in winter. If the blood is 
poor, there must be a heating drink of some kind. The best 
are those that are merely hot, unless they contain food ele¬ 
ments, like some of the malted milks now on sale in the 
market. They are all good, and serve the double purpose of 
affording heat and nourishment. People would be much 
better off in health if they used more of them, and less of the 
stimulants, such as tea, coffee and alcohol. 

The lack of balance in the food that is eaten is the cause of 
the desire for stimulating drinks; and the whole temperance 
question will be found to hinge on this one fact. Give the 
stomach the foods that are best for it, and no man living 
would have the slightest craving for liquor of any sort that 
is stimulating; for the desire for stimulants is a cry of the 
system for proper foods. Ralstonism has saved scores of 
thousands of men and women from the habit of alcoholism, 
and can cure any case known if the right diet is adopted. 
The whole food list and all the methods of selecting and pre¬ 
paring eatables, are made one of the many divisions of the 
great work, “ Ralston Gardens,” which is free at the fifth de¬ 
gree. 

Since coffee is so generally used to-day, there is a demand 
for as much light as possible on its merits and demerits; and 
we therefore present all the facts on both sides, and in as crisp 
and readable form as possible. 

COFFEE 

The coffee berry contains very slight nutriment, and no 
starch. 

Its digestibility depends on how it is prepared, cooked and 
drunk, and by whom. 

In all cases it is of very slow digestibility. 

In all cases it is partly indigestible. 

The longer it is boiled or cooked the harder it is to digest. 


What to Drink 


129 


The longer it stands after being boiled the more indigest¬ 
ible it is. 

Coffee should be ground just before using it. It should be 
prepared just before it is to be drank. Infusion is the best 
way of cooking it. 

Coffee should always be cooked in soft water, rain water 
or distilled water. 

These last two precautions make a much richer drink, add 
to its digestibility, and save money. 

Coffee produces both good and ill effects. 

GOOD EFFECTS 

It is a stimulant acting upon the heart, nerves and kidneys. 

When needed solely as a stimulant, it should be taken with¬ 
out milk, sugar or cream, and on an empty stomach. 

When needed as a food, it should be taken with sugar, milk 
or cream, or any one or two of these. 

Coffee immediately excites the action of the heart and 
nerves. 

Coffee prevents rapid digestion, and thus helps to “ keep ” 
a meal. 

A laborer can get more value out of a meal with coffee. 
In other words, it gives food a staying ” power. 

It also enlivens, brightens and cheers the mind. It pre¬ 
vents rapid waste of body tissue. 

With a little lemon juice, it often cures a malarial chill. 
This combination also prevents such chills. 

Army officers are unanimous in stating that coffee is in¬ 
dispensable for troops in active service to relieve fatigue. 

ILL EFFECTS 

Coffee retards digestion; it should therefore be avoided 
by dyspeptics. 

It excites the brain and produces insomnia in certain per¬ 
sons. 

9 


130 


The Ralston Health Club 


Victims of sleeplessness often get cured by omitting coffee 
altogether. 

Others by never taking it later than the first meal of the 
day. 

Its stimulating effect upon the hearts is followed by re¬ 
action. 

This reaction leads to depression. 

The use of coffee must be increased to offset the depression. 

Heartburn often follows the use of strong coffee. 

Very strong coffee is a rank poison. 

Confirmed coffee drinkers must have it stronger every 
year. 

Coffee essence, or extract of coffee, will kill a person if 
taken alone. 

Cereals or grains prepared as substitutes for coffee are gen¬ 
erally “ doctored ” with coffee extract to give them the real 
flavor. Avoid them. 

All-night work is better done by the aid of coffee, as it 
keeps the brain awake. 

Severe mental strain is aided by coffee, but with dangerous 
reaction. 

Coffee drinkers are despondent if they omit the beverage. 

Coffee drinkers often dream at night and have strange 
fancies. 

They soon are enslaved to the beverage. The slavery is 
discovered by abruptly stopping its use. The craving is as 
strong as for alcohol. 

Nerve tremors, excitability, loss of mental control, irrita¬ 
bility and constant unrest are the fruits of the habit. 

Nervous prostration and paralysis are sometimes the end. 

Coffee prevents rapid waste of body tissue. 

This is an advantage to the laborer or the active soldier. 

Other persons require rapid waste to carry on the functions 
of life* 

Otherwise the waste is incomplete. 


What to Drink 


131 

The laborer and soldier complete the waste by hard work. 

Complete waste produces urea and is evidence of health. 

Uric acid is partly completed waste of tissue. Incomplete 
waste, therefore, results in uric acid. 

Uric acid is the cause of rheumatism, dropsy, gout and 
similar ills. Coffee drinkers generally have uric acid. 

This accounts in part for the fact that some laborers are 
rheumatic; they either drink too much coffee or do not work 
hard enough. 

Other articles of diet also cause these various ills. 

The people of the United States are the most nervous peo¬ 
ple in the world. 

The people of the United States consume more coffee than 
Germany, France, Hungary, Austria, Scotland, Ireland, Eng¬ 
land and all her colonies combined. 

SUBSTITUTES FOR COFFEE 

The chief substitute for coffee is chicory. 

This is wholesome and nutritious, with no harmful effects. 

In 1853 the British Parliament declared chicory not an 
adulteration and allowed it to be called coffee. 

More recent substitutes are made of grains. 

Whole wheat coffee is one of the most common. 

But unless very thoroughly roasted it is dangerous. 

Its uncooked starch irritates the stomach and causes dys¬ 
pepsia. 

It also leads to heartburn and pain in the head. 

When thoroughly roasted, it is very valuable for laborers. 

It is never good for sedentary persons. 

The same is true of all substitutes for coffee, except, per¬ 
haps, chicory. 

You can test them. If cereal coffees are hurting you, there 
will be a pain in the heart, or dyspeptic pains in the stomach. 

We know of no drink that is so complete as malted milk 
powder. 


132 


The Ralston Health Club 


It is very strengthening, without exciting influences, or 
reaction. 

It is perfectly digested by weak or strong stomachs. 

It also aids the digestion of other things, such as milk, 
bread, etc. 

It can be taken with hot water or with milk. 

The Bavarian home made grain coffee is the best. 

It consists of roasted wheat, rye and oatmeal with butter. 
The butter is put in a hot frying pan, and the ground 
grain added. It must be well roasted, but not burned. 
French coffee (cafe) consists of pure coffee and hot milk. 
The coffee is prepared as usual and mixed half and half 
with boiled milk. 

It is very nutritious if drank in sips or rather slowly. 

TANNIN 

Tannin exists in tea, coffee and red wines. 

It irritates the lining of the stomach and intestines. 

It causes constipation. 

It deprives the gastric juice of its powers; hence causes in¬ 
digestion. 

Clarets and other wines are constipating. 

TEA 

Tea contains much more tannin than coffee. 

When hurtful, it is, therefore, much more injurious. 

Tea is made from young leaves of the evergreen tree thea. 
The leaves are picked, dried in the sun, then rolled under 
the bare feet of the Chinese and thus twisted. 

Green tea is steamed before it is dried. 

It contains more than twice as much tannin as black tea. 
For this reason, it is more poisonous. 

Black tea is commonly used; it is more hurtful than coffee. 
All tea drinkers are slaves to the beverage. 


What to Drink 


133 


This is seen when an attempt is made to abruptly stop 
using it. 

It cheers the mind, but its reaction causes despondency. 

It hurts the valves of the heart and injures the bladder. 

Tea drinkers, when old, “ drip ” the contents of the blad¬ 
der. 

The cheaper the tea the greater injury it does. 

Poor people, from its use, become dyspeptics. 

The disease and the tannin effects lead to mental depression 
and unfitness for the battle of life. 

The adulterations of tea are so extensive as to give rise to 
fixed industries. 

Many well advertised brands are mere adulterations. 

Cold tea and iced tea are more injurious than fresh hot 
tea. 

They lead quickly to weak stomach. 

Hot tea is a stimulant. 

With milk, cream or sugar, it is a slight nourishment. 

It should never be taken on an empty stomach. 

It is best with a full meal, while coffee is best on an empty 
stomach. 

To persons enslaved to it, tea often cures a headache. 

But the reaction is another headache. 

When quite strong, tea helps to cure the alcoholic habit. 

COCOA 

The value of cocoa is much exaggerated. 

It is a very incomplete and deficient food. 

Its nutritive value is found in its fat or cocoa butter. 

It has a very small percentage of albumin. 

In roasting it the albumin is often lost. 

In some cocoas chemicals are added to render the fat di¬ 
gestible. 

Nearly all cocoas on the market are adulterated. 

Persons suffering from kidney or liver troubles should 
avoid cocoa and chocolate. 


134 


The Ralston Health Club 


Chocolate is obtained from cocoa seeds. 

It is in common use and is much adulterated. 

It has very little food value when used alone. 

When cocoa or chocolate is taken with sugar and milk, it 
is nutritious. 

The greater the proportions of hot milk the better. 

Cocoa shells are indigestible and irritating to the stomach. 

Chocolate is much better than cocoa as a drink. 

Chocolate or cocoa is far preferable to tea or coffee. 

The cry of the system, however, is for hydrogen, and there 
is no other natural use for drinks than to supply this element. 

The amount of water taken into the system of a man weigh¬ 
ing 140 pounds, in the course of twenty-four hours, amounts 
to 4.1 lbs.; the dry food, 2.25 lbs.; the oxygen, 2.19 lbs.; the 
whole amounting to about eight and a half pounds of material 
every day, furnished, the system to sustain its powers. A pro¬ 
portionate amount, we discover, is discharged from the body 
in the same time, there being no increase of its weight. But 
in the meantime these materials have become greatly changed 
in consequence of chemical combinations with other. About 
a pound and a half of water has been produced, half a pound 
of carbon has been dismissed through the lungs, and great 
varieties of organic and earthy salts have been concocted in 
the system, and drained off by the kidneys. To convey oxy¬ 
gen and nutriment to the changing structures, about twenty- 
five pounds of blood have been kept in unceasing circulation 
through all, even to the minutest, channels of the body; and 
about twenty-one pounds of solvent juices have been poured 
into the digestive canal to effect the solution of the food, to 
be again absorbed into the blood. 



What to Drink 


135 


TABLES OF FOODS 

On the accompanying pages are given the most recently 
arranged and most authentic tables of foods for the guidance 
of all persons in daily life. We do not use scientific terms; 
for, having done so in all our previous editions, we find them 
unintelligible to the average readers, and the request has been 
well nigh unanimous to simplify them. 

In the left hand column we have given the list of foods in 
their condition as usually taken. It must be remembered 
that some foods are indigestible at times and wholesome at 
other times. 

The column of heaters and working energy is based on a 
scale of 1000. If the entire food is a heater, as in butter, or 
suet, or lard, the percentage is 1000, or perfect. If it has no 
working energy, it is marked o. If it has one-tenth, it is 
marked 100. By working energy is meant the fuel or heat 
producing value. The working power of the brain as an en¬ 
gine is dependent upon the same element as the working 
power of the muscles. Thus fat, sugar, etc., is a brain stimu¬ 
lant, a heat stimulant, and a muscle stimulant. Sugar pellets 
are now provided for soldiers on long marches. This is 
energy; but, when unbalanced by muscle making food, it is 
never good. We, therefore, give its value, but show its best 
use in the many laws of health that are published in this book. 

The column of vital energy for mind and nerves represents 
a higher class of nutriment, the design of which is to give 
intelligence to the working energy. The best illustration is 
that of the engine; the muscle making foods build the engine; 
the working energy foods produce the power to run it, as with 
steam, and the vital energy for mind and nerves are the en¬ 
gineer, whose intelligence guides the power to run the engine. 
Thus, the working energy of the body can be very great, as 
in the labor performed by an idiot or an ox, where the brain 
works, but without intelligence. Humanity needs brain 


136 


The Ralston Health Club 


power and mind power. This claim has been amply tested and 
proved by many experiments. Foods rated much under 20 
should be balanced by others above 20. 

The scale is the same as in the first column, but the per¬ 
centage is always small in this line, although a little repre¬ 
sents great value. When food has 20 points of vital energy 
for mind and nerves, it is of high rank. Some have over 50, 
but their indigestibility may affect their real usefulness. 

The muscle building column is less important than the 
first two. The service of this class of foods is in its power to 
make the material parts of the body, particularly the muscles 
and the tissue. It should accompany the other kinds of food, 
especially the heaters, as the latter are fuel and overheat the 
body. The scale is the same as in the other columns. 

Ease of digestion is the fourth scale. Here the percent¬ 
age has nothing to do with the contents of the foods them¬ 
selves, but with their ease of being turned into blood. When a 
person in average health is able to perfectly digest an article 
of food, we call it 1000 in the scale, as in the case of rice. 
When no part of the food is digestible, we call it o. When 
half of it may be digested, or when it is difficult of digestion, 
requiring twice the energy of such a food as rice to turn it into 
blood, we mark it 500. As a rule, foods under 500 should not 
be eaten by persons who are not out of doors much, and foods 
under 250 should not be eaten at all; while invalids must be¬ 
ware of foods under 700. The fact that a food is most easily 
digested does not place it above others, for it has less staying 
power and may have less strength. When the stomach is 
sore to outside pressure there is danger, and it is time to call 
a halt. But difficult digestion not followed by such soreness 
is an advantage to a laborer or any hard worker. 

The last column tells the proportion of water in food. This 
serves as bulk. The water is often encased in little cells, 
and after serving the great purpose of stretching the stomach, 
it is released and passes on without causing distress or oppres¬ 
sion. 


What to Drink 


137 


All elements in food or in chemistry are combinations of a 
single kind of atoms, as stated in one of the degree books 
of Ralston Natural College. The shape and character of the 
atoms remain the same, but certain combinations produce 
carbon, others iron, oxygen, etc. The atom is the element¬ 
ary particle of sunlight. This explains why people who are 
much in the air and light have more iron in the blood and 
more color in the complexion than others; why animals have 
much iron in their blood when there is none in the food they 
eat; why some persons are stout and hearty on a very light 
diet; and it solves many problems of life and disease, such as 
the mysterious turning of flesh and blood into sugar in dia¬ 
betes and other maladies. It is often wondered at how some 
persons are able to get food and strength from what they do 
not eat. The old claim that you cannot get something from 
nothing is still true; and in nearly every case it is also' true 
that the actual food that enters the stomach makes exact 
results in the body. But nature goes often beyond this sim¬ 
ple operation. 

Digestibility of other foods—The following table includes 
many articles of diet that are rated on a scale of digestibility 
only. They are not important enough for full listing, and 
some are variations from those already given, while others 
are cooked forms of the same. If a person in average health 
may digest a food without distress or injury to the stomach 
and with reasonable ease, under conditions that prompt good 
digestion, we give a perfect rating, or 1000. When food 
goes through the system unaltered, the rating is nothing, 
or o. Articles below 500 are not safe for a weak stomach. 
If below 300 they are sure to cause trouble in the years to 
come if indulged in. Invalids require foods rated above 700, 
and even then most meats are to be avoided. The stomach 
may not give any signs of injury, although it is being 
gradually destroyed. Its silence will some day be broken, 
and perhaps by fatal gastritis. Do not be misled by the many 


Fok Explanation 

See Opposite Page 

ARTICLES 

HEATERS AND 

WORKING ENERGY 

VITAL ENERGY FOR 

MIND AND NERVES 

VALUE FOR 

MUSCLE BUILDING 

EASE OF 

DIGESTION 

WATER 

WASTE 

Apples, dried .. 

727 

14 

9 

580 

250 


Arrowroot. 

833 

3 

8 

820 

154 

2 

Artichoke. 

190 

18 

19 

910 

766 

7 

Asparagus. 

54 

4 

6 

820 

936 

• • • 

Bacon. 

625 

5 

84 

450 

286 


Barley, pearl. 

780 

22 

47 

. 1000 

75 

76 

Beans, dried. 

400 

35 

240 

460 

148 

177 

Beans, green .. 

220 

19 

205 

995 

491 

65 

Beef, fat.. 

456 

30 

514 

650 



Beef, lean. 

55 

51 

894 

975 



Beets . . . ‘. 

6 

. . . 

14 

520 

871 

109 

Biscuit . .. 

747 

17 

156 

220 

80 


Buckwheat. 

530 

18 

86 

350 

142 

224 

Butter. 

1000 



1000 

. . . 


Cabbage . 

62 

8 

12 

360 

913 

5 

Carp. 

8 

29 

180 

780 

78a 

. 

Carrots. 

122 

10 

11 

530 

825 

32 

Cauliflow^er. 

46 

10 

36 

380 

900 

8 

Celery. 

11 

. . . 

15 

250 

841 

133 

Cheese.. 

280 

47 

308 

380 

365 


Cherries.' 

210 

10 

6 

595 

763 

li 

Chicken. 

19 

28 

216 

1000 

737 


Chocolate. 

880 

18 

88 

160 


14 

Clams. 


25 

120 

320 

855 


Cocoa . 

322 

11 

199 

140 

38 

430 

Codfish. 

10 

25 

165 

920 

800 


Corn, canned. 

143 

6 

28 

20 

813 

10 

Corn, green. 

81 

5 

21 

80 

882 

11 

Corn meal. 

717 

12 

131 

990 

89 

.51 

Corn starch. 

tfS 

2 

• 

1000 

20 


Crabs . 

10 

. . . 

151 

60 

839 


Crackers.. 

799 

5 

103 

800 

72 

21 

Cream. 

45 

, . . 

35 

880 

920 


Cucumber. 

17 

5 

1 

0 

971 

6 

Currants, dried. 

68 

3 

9 

0 

813 

107 

Dates. 

737 


‘ , 

820 

240 

23 

Eels.1 

6 

35 

170 

790 

750 

39 

































































For Explanation 

See Preceding Pages 

ARTICLES, 

HEATERS AND 

WORKING ENERGY 

VITAL ENERGY FOR 

MIND AND NERVES 

VALUE FOR 

MUSCLE BUILDING 

EASE OF 

DIGESTION 

WATER 

WASTE 

Eggs, white of. 


28 

130 

1000 

842 


Eggs, yolk of ...... 

298 

20 

169 

1000 

513 

. . . 

Figs. 

579 

34 

50 

810 

187 

150 

Flounder. 

5 

35 

150 

570 

780 

30 

Flour, perfect. 

750 

11 

110 

1000 

125 

4 

Flour, white. 

832 

5 

41 

300 

90 

32 

Gelatine. 

390 

. . . 

83 

1000 

490 

37 

Green gages ...... 

268 

. . . 

3 

565 

711 

18 

Haddock. 

6 

26 

140 

840 

828 

• . . 

Halibut. 

15 

35 

180 

850 

740 

30 

Ham . 

320 

44 

350 

810 

286 

• . . 

Herring, fresh. 

15 

45 

180 

860 

750 

10 

Herring, salt. 

11 

29 

155 

480 

795 

10 

Hominy. 

723 

18 

147 

1000 

106 

6 

Horse radish. 

47 

10 

1 

90 

782 

160 

Kidney * *. 

9 

14 

212 

360 

765 

. . . 

Lamb. 

143 

22 

196 

970 

639 

. . , 

Lard .. 

1000 



210 

. . . 

. . . 

Lentils. 

390 

15 

260 

870 

140 

195 

Lettuce. 

3 

. . . 

14 

670 

943 

40 

Liver . 

39 

12 

263 

290 

686 

• . . 

Lobster.. . 

15 

55 

140 

400 

790 


Macaroni. 

761 

8 

90 

950 

131 

10 

Mackerel. 

19 

38 

174 

690 

761 

8 

Milk, condensed .... 

260 

21 

106 

1000 

613 

. . . 

Milk of cow. 

80 

10 

50 

990 

860 

. . . 

Milk, human. 

99 

5 

30 

1000 

866 

. . . 

Mushrooms ...... 

45 

. . . 

6 

60 

929 

20 

Mutton. 

140 

20 

210 

540 

630 

. . . 

Oatmeal ........ 

686 

30 

126 

470 

150 

8 

Oats. 

508 

30 

170 

210 

136 

156 

Olive oil. 

980 

. . . 

20 

1000 



Onions. 

52 

5 

5 

235 

938 


Oysters, fried. 

165 

4 

131 

95 

700 

. . . 

Oysters, raw. 


2 

126 

930 

872 

. . . 

Oysters, stewed. 

12 

4 

142 

680 

842 

. . . 

Oyster plant. 

140 

15 

21 

930 

789 

35 

Parsnips . 

145 

10 

. 21 

510 

794 

30 































































For Explanation 

See Preceding Pages 

ARTICLES 

HEATERS AND 

WORKING ENERGY 

VITAL ENERGY EOR 

MIND AND NERVES 

VALUE FOR 

MUSCLE BUILDING 

EASE OP 

DIGESTION 

W^ATER 

WASTE 

Pearl barley. 

770 

12 

47 

1000 

95 

76 

Pears ......... 

96 

. . . 

1 

980 

864 

39 

Peas, dry. 

410 

25 

234 

450 

141 

190 

Peas, green. 

224 

15 

206 

1000 

480 

75 

Peas, split. 

520 

31 

264 

965 

158 

27 

Pigeon, young ..... 

19 

27 

230 

960 

724 

• . - 

Plaice. 

5 

55 

140 

590 

800 

• • • 

Pork. 

160 

22 

175 

420 

643 

. . . 

Potatoes. 

158 

9 

14 

850 

748 

71 

Potatoes, sweet. 

218 

29 

15 

310 

675 

63 

Plums. 

280 

. 

7 

565 

696 

17 

Prunes. 

786 

45 

39 

980 

130 


Radishes. 

74 

10 

12 

0 

891 

13 

Raisins. 

512 

6 

40 

540 

400 

42 

Rice . 

820 

5 

51 

1000 

90 

34 

Rye . 

752 

5 

65 

900 

135 

43 

Sago. 

961 

4 

. . . 

975 

25 

10 

Salmon. 

5 

60 

200 

575 

735 


Saratoga chips. 

440 

9 

14 

0 

405 

132 

Smelt. 

15 

55 

170 

795 

750 

10 

Sole. 

8 

25 

170 

750 

797 

. 

Spinach . 

6 

. . . 

31 

510 

902 

61 

Suet . 

1000 


. 

470 



Sugar, brown ...... 

965 

5 

• • 

965 

30 


Sugar, granulated .... 

978 

2 


1000 

20 


Syrup . 

550 

7 

• • • 

990 

437 

6 

Tapioca . 

978 

2 

. 

980 

20 


Tomatoes . 

29 

. . . 

8 

470 

960 

3 

Trout . 

8 

43 

169 

930 

780 


Turbot.. 

5 

45 

160 

720 

790 


Turnips. 

40 

5 

12 

390 

904 

39 

Veal .. 

143 

23 

177 

140 

657 


Venison. 

80 

28 

204 

385 

688 


Vermicelli. 

880 

17 

475 

950 

128 


Wheat. 

664 

16 

146 

430 

140 

34 

Whey. 

46 

7 


990 

947 


Whiting.■ • * 1 

10 

55 

150 

930 

780 

5 




































































What to Drink 


141 

seemingly contradictory rules as to digestion. They are all 
in harmony when the conditions of life are understood. 
Under circumstances that demand long staying powers, the 
foods that are reasonably difficult to digest are more valuable 
than those that the invalid finds necessary; what would help 
the laborer might kill the convalescent. For the sake of 
future peace, it is better to follow the ratings given in the 
three preceding pages, and in the following: 

ADDITIONAL TABLE OF DIGESTIBILITY 

Baked beans, 260. Barley bread, 200. Whole barley, 90. 
Smoked beef, 360. New beets, 760. Old beets, 310. Bran, 
o. New raised bread, 175. Pilot bread, 860. Soggy bread, 
80. Brown bread, 610. Buttermilk, 960. Cake, 150. Capon, 
690. Cooked celery, 280. Raw celery, 30. Cold slaw, o. 
Cookies, 390. Common crackers, 880. Fancy crackers, 90. 
Patent crackers, 40. Soda crackers, 410. Water crackers, 
910. Cranberries, o. Cream cheese, 760. Doughnuts, 190. 
Ducks, 475. Eggplant, 825. Graham flour, 490. Garlic, 235. 
Ginger snaps, 650. Goose, 230. Groats, 980. Honey, 
1000. Honeycomb, o. Junket, 995. Koumiss, 1000. Leek, 
235. Lemon rind, o. Maple sugar, 480. Hard cooked 
meat, 120. Raw meat, 975. Skim milk, 950. Molasses, 
870. Iceland, Irish or sea moss, 1000. Raised muffins, 175. 
Olives, 70. Pickled onions, o. Raw onions, o. Orange rind, o. 
Pancakes, 420. Pickles, o. Pie crust, no. Pieplant, 120. 
Lyonnaise potatoes, 560. Soggy potatoes, 10. Very new 
potatoes, 610. Very old potatoes, 270. Pumpkin, 790. 
Fish roe, 415. Rhubarb, 120. Salsify, 930. Sauerkraut, o. 
Shrimps, 180. Sweetbread, g(^o. Squash, 820. Turkey, 
860. Yams, 780. 

THE END OF 

KNOWLEDGE DIVISION 


I^e^innin^ ©f 

THE LIVING DIVISION 

OF THE 




CHAPTER FIFTEEN 


Adding Seventy Years 

WHEN YOU HAVE READ THE SOCIAL DIVISION -J* 
^ AND THOUGHT OVER THE MEMBERSHIP DIVISION ^ 
AND STUDIED THE KNOWLEDGE DIVISION -J- 
^ YOU SHOULD ADOPT THE LIVING DIVISION 

^ IRCUMSTANCES hem every person round about 
/ so tightly that it is very difficult to get away from 

V clT the bad habits of living even when they are ac- 
^ knowledged to be the cause of all those mis¬ 
fortunes that make life far less attractive than it ought to be. 
It is much easier, from the standpoint of convenience, to go 
on doing wrong things than it is to turn about and take the 
highway to health. 

The Living Division of the Ralston Health Club is new. 
It now appears for the first time; although some of its intro¬ 
ductory ideas are old. 

It should have appeared many years ago, and previous 
editions of this Book of General Membership are defective for 
not containing the Living Division. Being desirous of pre¬ 
senting this new system to all Ralstonites who are in earnest, 
we have arranged the three-fold advantage of giving two 
copies of this new Book of General Membership to every pre¬ 
vious owner of any edition of the past, who enters the Vitality 
Club; besides which we will advance such persons two de¬ 
grees. This gives all holders of the former editions a very 
great advantage. If they are loyal and earnest Ralstonites, 
they will appreciate what is more than presenting them with 


144 


The Ralston Health Club 


this new edition. If they are non-progressive, they cannot 
ask the favor, or conscientiously accept it. 

The Living Division, as has been said, is new. It consists 
in the constant effort of the Club to stand by you, hour by 
hour, day by day, and year by year; from the moment of your 
rising on Monday morning, to the hour of your retiring; and 
from the begining of the week to its end; not only in one 
week, but in all the year; until the errors of your habits are 
gently corrected and the journey of longevity is well started. 

THE DATE OF YOUR DEATH 

is not fixed. No scientist and no^ truly religious person 
believes that a person will die on a particular day, whether he 
is careful or not. Science, theology, and sound judgment all 
agree that human beings are free agents. It is a sin to 
believe otherwise. It is a wrong to the public and to- your 
family to cease to act as a free agent. Therefore we repeat 
that the date of your death is not fixed, but that it is solely a 
matter within your care and keeping 

You have two periods before you; one is that which will 
terminate at a certain time in case you go on living as you 
have been doing; the other adds seventy years to the former 
period. Neither is known; but a careful person can figure 
out the possibility of extra longevity and arrive at a satis¬ 
factory estimate. 

We believe in a great age, and we shall not hesitate to teach 
it boldly. We believe in it now more than ever, for the re¬ 
sults of careful living have been seen and are being noted at 
this time, and they are a kind of evidence that cannot be 
shaken. 

What is the worst of woes that wait on age? 

What stamps the wrinkle deeper on the brow? 

To view each loved one blotted from life’s page, 

And be alone on earth as I am now. 


— Byron. 


Adding Seventy Years 


145 


No person in the possession of full vigor and enjoyment of 
life wishes to die. Those who seek destruction are generally 
insane or morbidly discouraged. Some are “ willing to go ” 
if relief from the cares and sufferings of this existence may be 
obtained. But the possession of all the faculties of body and 
mind, attended by an enjoyment of living, can only inspire 
all human beings with a tenacious desire to prolong life to the 
utmost length. Old people think of their many years and 
expect soon to pass away. In most persons this one thought 
is constantly in mind and it hastens the breaking down of the 
faculties, and actually brings on premature old age, decrepi¬ 
tude and death. 

The most interesting experiment that a man could make 
would be to test the possibilities of a long life. The body, 
mind and nerves are subjected to constant abuse and give 
away in time to disease, i. Until recently no scientific at¬ 
tempt has ever been made to increase the vitality of the body. 

2. Four-fifths of the food taken into the stomach is injurious. 

3. Exercise is either omitted or forced, or taken by gym¬ 
nasium methods, all of which produce short lives. 4. Cheer¬ 
fulness is never cultivated, and irritability increases with 
advancing years. We declare that in the life of any man or 
woman who belongs to the first class of Ralstonites (and all 
should be in this class sooner or later) an extreme age may be 
reached without the decrepitude that usually attends it. 

The principles of health are observed in greater or less de¬ 
gree by many men and women who attain a great age without 
applying the doctrines scientifically, as they know nothing 
of them except in a rude way. We have met hundreds of 
persons over seventy, and many over eighty, and a few above 
ninety. In every instance where we have inquired, and we 
have done this often, the early life had been spent in the open 
air; and the love of nature, being thus acquired, had followed 
though the after years. Necessity furnished regime, and 
ambition, humble, but intense, had fired the blood. Often by 

TO 


146 


The Rai^ston Health Clou 


mere accident of circumstances a long life has been due to a 
blind acquiescence in the principles of health. Many fabulous 
accounts are found concerning longevity; but some reports 
are records, both authentic and accepted without the pos¬ 
sibility of doubt. Laying,aside the great ages mentioned in 
the Bible as belonging to a different era, we come down to the 
present period, and find ample evidence of extreme age. 

Regime will restore a broken constitution. Urdini, a count 
of the last century, who at the age of thirty-nine had ruined 
his health by dissipation, was told by his physician that he 
must die in less than a year. He resolved to recuperate his 
lost death, to generate new blood, to rebuild his body and 
—to live! In three years he was a new man; he lived to a 
good old age, and died at ninety-eight. 

From authentic records we present a list of long-lived per¬ 
sons. For these facts we are indebted to other works, reports 
and records. 

“J- E- Worcester, LL.D., gives a list of ninety-eight per¬ 
sons in New Hampshire, with the date of their deaths, which 
occurred within the period of ninety-three years, ending in 
1824, all of whom were one hundred or more years old, be¬ 
sides six others, the date of whose deaths were unknown, the 
eldest of whom was one hundred and twenty. Dr. Worcester 
gives a table, beginning in 1808 and ending in 1821, exhibit¬ 
ing a list of one hundred and thirty-two persons in the United 
States who had attained the age of one hundred and ten years 
or upwards; three at one hundred and thirty; three at one 
hundred and thirty-four; one at one hundred and thirty-five; 
two at one hundred and thirty-six; one at one hundred and 
thirty-seven; one at one hundred and forty-two; one at one 
hundred and forty three; one at one hundred and fifty years 
of age.’' 

“ There were in the United States, in 1850, two thousand 
five hundred and fifty-five persons over one hundred years of 
age. In the beginning of the year 1858, there were in the 


Adding Seventy Years 


147 


New England States four clergymen, all educated at Dart¬ 
mouth College, each of whom was one hundred years old/’ 

Peter Zarten, near Temesvar, in Hungary, died January 5, 
^ 7 ^ 4 j ^t the age of one hundred and eighty-five. Henry 
Jenkins, of Yorkshire, England, lived to be eight score and 
nine, or one hundred and sixty-nine years of age. Thomas 
Parr, of Shropshire, England, died in 1636, aged one hundred 
and fifty-two years and nine months. He was twice married; 
the first time at eighty, the second time at one hundred and 
twenty years. He had offspring by each marriage. Nina 
Zahn, near Berlin, died at the age of one hundred and forty- 
one, having never used meat or beer. 

‘ John Rovin and his wife, of Temesvar, died 1741, he in his 
one hundred and seventy-second year, and she in her hun¬ 
dred and sixty-fourth, having lived together, man and wife, 
one hundred and forty-seven years. He was married at the 
age of twenty-five and his wife at the age of seventeen.” 

‘ Henry Francisco, born in France, died near Whitehall, 
N. Y., in October, 1824, in his one hundred and thirty-fifth 
year.” Dr. Mussey, formerly a professor of anatomy and 
surgery at Dartmouth College, says that John Gilley, born in 
the county of Cork, Ireland, in 1690, died at Augusta, Me., 
July, 1813, aged one hundred and twenty-three. “ I saw him,” 
says Dr. Mussey, “ after sunset of a cold evening in December 
at the age of about one hundred and eighteen. At that time 
he took the whole care of the cattle in his barn, and cut all 
the wood for the fire in his house.” 

“ Captain Riley, in the journal of his shipwreck, mentions 
that he was told by Sidi Hornet, of an Arab in the great 
African Desert who was nearly three hundred years old; and 
he adds ' I am fully of the opinion that many Arabs in this 
grat expanse of desert actually live to the age of two hundred 
years or more.’ ” 

“ Make Brun says, ‘ It was in Punjaub and other elevated 
districts that the ancients collected numerous examples of 


148 


The Ralston Health Club 


longevity. The Cyrni and the subjects of Prince Musicanus, 
often lived to the age of one hundred and thirty or twO' hun¬ 
dred years.’ ” 

Eminent scientists assert that, under favoring conditions: 

1. The skin may last for nine hundred years. 

2. The bones may endure four thousand years. 

3. The heart may endure three hundred years or more. 

4. The liver four hundred years or more. 

5. The stomach three hundred years or more. 

6. The kidneys two hundred years or more. 

7. The lungs fifteen hundred years. 

The foregoing assertions are taken from different estimates, 
and they vary in length of time simply because each is the 
minimum view of the person stating it, and is based on some 
special proof. The body has unequal powers of endurance, 
and some part gives way first; generally the kidneys or the 
heart. 

H. J. Weber, in the American Naturalist, says: “ Of cer¬ 
tain organisms, however, we cannot predict that death will 
occur. On the contrary, for the Protozoa and probably 
Protophyta, it has been determined that there is no death. 
They are according to Weismann, immortal, so far as normal 
death is concerned. Accidental death must be considered, 
and the ravages from higher animals to which the Protozoa 
and Protophyta are exposed are enormous. So methods are 
provided for their reproduction.” 

Nature affords a process to youth, which she intends should 
be reversed when growth is attained. This claim was first 
stated by this Club; yet, although the statement is new, the 
facts which support it are old. These facts we will look at 
now. Life begins in gelatine and ends in bones. Ask any 
physician; he will tell you that old age is but the bony ten¬ 
dency of heart, brain and arteries; that ninety-seven percent 
of all people past middle life are ossifying, or turning to bones, 
in the heart, in the brain and the arteries; that a steady. 


Adding Seventy Years 


149 


gradual change in this direction is going on from youth to 
age; and that when any part of the body, excepting the bones, 
begin to secrete bony matter, weakness follows; resulting, 
first, in reducing the circulation; second, impoverishing the 
blood; third, breaking down tissues; and fourth, exposing 
the organs to the ravages of germ life. These facts are stated 
by Koch, Grumaine, Browne, Lewes, Bichat, Baillie, and a 
score of others, and are proved by observation. 

There are five great results which sooner or later follow the 
osseous tendency of the system: 

1. The hardening of the skin; whereupon the skin wrinkles, 
gets old, the hair is killed, and the blood does not circulate 
freely, causing an aged look in place of the freshness of youth. 
We say this can be prevented. 

2. The brain turns to bony substance in its intricate parts; 
it loses flexibility, becomes hard, gets “ set,” and deep think¬ 
ing is impossible. 

3. The heart is likewise clogged; its circulative action is 
impeded, the body suffers by reason of poor blood. We say 
this can be prevented. 

4. The bones, muscles, sinews, tendons, ligaments and 
tissues become stiff, and old age—rheumaticky ” old age— 
even at forty, sets in, attended by multitudinous ills. We say 
this can be prevented. 

As observation shows, says Dr. Wm. Kinnear, man begins 
in a gelatinous condition; he ends in an osseous or bony one— 
soft in infancy, hard in old age. When the arteries are 
clogged with calcareous matter there is interference with the 
circulation, upon which nutrition depends. Without nutri¬ 
tion there is nO' repair of the body. Hence, G. H. Lewes 
states that “ if the repair were always identical with the waste, 
life would only then be terminated by accident, never by old 
age.” 

Paradoxical as it may sound, certain foods which we put 
into our mouths to preserve our lives help at the same time 


150 The Ralston Health Club 

to hurry us to the inevitable gate of the cemetery. A diet 
made up of fruit principally is the best for people advancing 
in years, for the reason that being deficient in nitrogen the 
ossific deposits so much to be dreaded are more likely to be 
suspended. Moderate eaters have in all cases a much better 
chance of long life than those addicted to excesses of the table. 
Blockages of the functions of the stomach are more usual td 
those who eat more than the stomach can utilize than to light 
eaters. Mr. De Lacy Evans, who made many careful re¬ 
searches in these regions of science, comes to the conclusion 
that fruits, fish and poultry, young mutton and steer meat, 
contain less of the earthy salts than other articles of food, and 
are therefore best for people. Beef and old mutton usually 
are overcharged with salts and should be avoided. If one 
desires to prolong life, therefore, it seems that moderate 
eating and a diet containing a minimum amount of earthy 
particles is most suitable to retard old age by preserving the 
system from blockages. 

The powerful solvent properties of distilled waters are well 
known. As carbonate of lime exists in nearly all drinking 
water, the careful distillation eliminates this harmful element. 
As a beverage, distilled water is rapidly absorbed into the 
blood; it keeps soluble those salts already in the blood and 
facilitates their excretion, thus preventing their undue de¬ 
posit. The daily use of distilled water is, after middle life, 
one of the most important means of preventing secretions 
and the derangement of health. 

The opinions just cited are from an eminent medical author¬ 
ity backed by the best scientists of his profession. The plan 
of prevention suggested is a small part only of the Ralston 
methods. 


HOW LONG WILL YOU LIVE? 

As has been stated there are two periods of possible 
duration for you: 


Adding Seventy Years 


151 

The first is for a Class-One-Ralstonite, or one who is seek¬ 
ing perfect health. 

The second is for a Class-Two-Ralstonite, or one who lets 
circumstances drift him down stream until the open sea of 
disease is at hand, and then works a hundred times harder to 
get health than would have been necessary in order to keep 
it; and who seems to believe that drugs and patent medicines 
are life-boats. This Living Division is not for those who 
are in Class Two, and what is said is not for their consider¬ 
ation. 

Class-One-Ralstonites are those who are sufficiently inter¬ 
ested in the questions of health to take some pains tO' secure 
it, or to hold on to it if they already possess it. Life is a 
fight against disease even if you are well. 

All invalids can regain health if they are in earnest, and are 
able to act for themselves; except in the few rare cases where 
an incurable malady has its fatal grip on life. Ralstonism 
can better any condition that can be bettered at all; and it 
can bring health to many who have no chances of recovery 
by other methods. It is always helpful to the doctor, and 
often pulls the patient through in spite of the doctor. 

Ralstonites who do not live up to the doctrines of Ralston- 
ites stand no better chance of getting well than do other 
negligent persons. We find that many men and women 
boast of being Ralstonites, who never made the slightest 
attempt tu put into execution a single one of the laws of 
health. Such members are not representatives of this Club, 
even if they hold the highest rank. The earnest, faithful 
Ralstonite never fails to get good health and to hold it. 

The last named member is invited to come with us as a 
companion in the ensuing pages of this book, and with us to 
make the gallant fight for great longevity. How long did 
you think you would live before you became a faithful 
Ralstonite? 

Add seventy years to that estimate. 


152 


The Ralston Health Club 


This means to add seventy years of real life to the era of 
existence that was probably your allotment prior to your 
adoption of Ralstonism. 

There will be great things going on in this country for the 
next seventy years. Let’s live to see them. 

Why would it not be a good idea for those who wish to put 
the principles of Ralstonism into real and earnest practice, 
to form an alliance the sole object of which shall be to see 
how many years of active and useful life may be added to 
what is now the gift of the Creator? Such an organization 
could be conducted without expense or much trouble; for all 
that is necessary is to notify us that you wish to be considered 
an active member of the Ralston Longevity Society, and we 
will do the rest. 

The benefits and blessings of such efforts cannot be under¬ 
stood until they are thoroughly underway, and all who en¬ 
gage in the making of them have come to realize that they 
have made vast gains toward a great goal. 

It is worth the effort to live in the wonderful era that is 
sure to dawn upon humanity very soon; just as it would have 
been a glorious thing to have lived fifty years beyond the 
limit of two generations ago and to have witnessed the tri¬ 
umphs of this age. Could some man or woman awaken from 
the grave, who went down to it before the last century was 
half through, what revelation the world of to-day would be? 

Let’s try to reach an extraordinary age. You are invited 
to send us your name and also the names of your earnest 
friends. 



CHAPTEE SIXTEEN 


The Four Cardinal Points of Health 



THERE 

ARE 

POUR CARDINAL 

POINTS 

OF 

HEALTH 




WHAT TO 

EAT 4* 












WHAT 

TO DO ^ 



•h 


•F 







THE VITAL SCALE 

4- 









4- 

4 . 

4 . 4 . 

AND MERRIMENT 

❖ 





4- 

•b 


THESE 

FOUR MAKE UP 

THE 

FATEFUL 

LIST 



^I^^IVvING like a Class-One-Ralstonite is not at all diffi- 
I Yp cult. In the first place you are in earnest, and this 

I ^ ^ is the whole secret. Being in earnest, you become 

observant. An observant person pays attention 
to the many details that made up the day’s history; avoiding 
those that are enemies of health, and adopting others that are 
sources of benefit. This is all. It requires no more time to 
live in the correct way than it does to live in the wrong way; 
and the latter is awfully expensive in the long run, to say 
nothing of the suffering and misery that follow. 

There are four cardinal points of health, and they may be 
briefly stated in the very few words below: 

1. Food. 

2. The day’s activities. 

3. The vital scale. 

4. Merriment. 

While the language is not precisely the same as in former 
editions, the essential meaning remains unaltered. The two 
last named,—the vital scale ” and '' merriment,”—belong to 



154 


The Ralston Heatlh Club 


the second degree; and the Vitality Club of that degree deals 
in a most thorough manner with the whole subject of the 
life-principle. To make these clear we will explain them at 
this place, beginning first with 

THE VITAL SCALE 

This is a sort of thermometer that indicates the amount 
of vitality in the body. It is not an instrument, but a method 
of reckoning whereby the state of energy is ascertained. 

Vitality is everything. Without its power there is always 
a tendency to disease; and, when it is low, the battle for health 
is hopeless. It is able to resist most maladies, if the proper 
food is taken to aid it; but, lacking this help, it falls like a 
structure built on the sand, unable to endure the storms and 
floods. 

Nature bestows it with a lavish hand; but, despite the fact 
that the average children are born with double the vitality 
of their parents, the errors to which they are subjected in 
their early years send fifty percent of them to the grave in 
infancy, thus overcoming the good start given them at birth. 

Heads of families or those who have charge of others, 
should know how much vitality, as measured by the Vital¬ 
ity Club, is possessed by each one, including:— 

THE CHILD, 

THE YOUTH, 

THE MAIDEN, 

THE YOUNG MAN, 

THE YOUNG WOMAN, 

THE FATHER OR MOTHER, 
and all who are well and sick, if improvement is of any im¬ 
portance. 

The Vital Scale extends through a range of lOO degrees. 
Do not mix these with the degrees of the Ralston Club, 
which are loo also. They are in no way connected. One 
relates to vitality, the other to progress of interest in the 


The Four Cardinal Points of Health 


155 


art of doing good in the world. Let us look for a moment 
at the 

PLAN OF THE VITAL SCALE 

o.—This is nothing, or zero. It represents death. 

10.—This is one-tenth of perpetual existence, or one- 
seventh of absolutely perfect health. It is so low, however, 
that it is called “ dying,” for very few persons whose vital¬ 
ity is only 10, are able to make a successful fight against 
disease. 

20.—Every person whose vitality is at 20 degrees or more, 
has more than even chances of securing perfect health. They 
are not called sick, but weak and easily wearied. For them 
there is no treatment but that of the Vitality Club. 

30.—The majority of the people including men and women 
of apparently good health, are not far from 30 degrees in the 
Vital Scale. It is a fact that all persons of this degree, who 
are not following the plan of the Vitality Club, or some sys¬ 
tem based on its natural laws, are tending downward all the 
time. For them the Vitality Club is the greatest blessing 
ever established. 

40.—Once in a while you may find some persons whose 
vitality exceeds 40 degrees, but they are not numerous. They 
are generally well, but are tending downward all the time. 

50.—Still fewer are those who are thus far up the scale. 
As life advances toward age these rare exceptions are con¬ 
stantly losing ground. 

60.—There are men and women of exceptionally fine 
health, who can boast of reaching this degree. We are frank 
to say that we have never seen any such, unless they were 
Ralstonites of years’ standing who had actually lived up to 
the doctrines of Ralstonism. Many claim to do so, but an 
analysis of their lives shows their mistake. 

70.—This degree of the Vital Scale is the highest goal of 
the two Clubs. It cannot be attained except by the blend¬ 
ing or harmonizing of the systems of the Ralston Health 


156 The Ralston Heatlh Club 

Club, and of the Vitality Club. Once attained, there is no 
possibility of the child, the youth, the adult, or the aged, ever 
dying of disease, unless through a wanton throwing away of 
the great gift of perfect health. The 70th degree of vital¬ 
ity is for those who are down and wish to come up; and, also, 
for those who are up and do not wish to come down. 

80.—This stage is not attainable except by a change of 
modern conditions of living suited to the plan set forth in the 
book of Real Life. 

90.—What is true of the 80th vital stage is also true of this. 
We have never held out to members of these Clubs the prom¬ 
ise of passing the 70th stage. 

100.—Perpetual existence.”—This is founded on a possi¬ 
bility too remote for consideration. Those who wish to 
study the subject will find all the facts of science fully pre¬ 
sented in the book of Real Life. There it is shown conclusive¬ 
ly that death is the penalty of allowing other life to remain on 
earth, to remove which is amply within the power of man. 
The connection between the two propositions is proved by 
a mass of facts that are quickly convincing. The bare sug¬ 
gestion, when submitted to careful investigators, seems too 
strange to be believed; but, as all careful investigators read 
and ponder before they express themselves, they take time to 
examine all the facts; and they have never failed to find them 
convincing. 

Of course such a change would require a revolution in the 
thousand wrongs that go unchallenged today; but new roads 
are being taken, and they lead to the right sooner or later. 

We are not privileged to discuss these matters here. 

The only scope of the present chapter is to explain the third 
Cardinal Point of Health, which is Vitality, and that is re¬ 
served for the great systems of living which are set forth in 
the book of the Vitality Club, a volume that is free to you 
at the second degree, and that all active Ralstonites are sure 
to secure, for no one will fail to advance that far. 


CHAPTEE SEVENTEEN 


Merriment 

^ ALL NATURE BLOSSOMS IN HER FLOWERS 
THE SKY IS FULL OF SMILING STARS 
AND HEARTS OVERLEAP THEMSELVES 
WHEN JOY OUTPOURS ITS HEALING BALM -J* 

(J\ “p NTOLD wealth of vitality awaits those who know 
y I what the great organ of laughter is for, and how 
I (jtj to use it. The first thing is to know what it is, 
^ where it is, and its relation to the life with which 
it is associated. Then there should be the means of calling 
into use the great activity for which it was created. 

All we can do in this book is to invite attention to the 
wonderful organ of merriment that nature has given to every 
human being. We do not refer to the muscles of risibility, 
as they are called. The later are located in the face and are 
peculiar to the human race. It is a good rule to know that, 
whatever has been given us by the Creator, is intended for 
use. Some persons think it is undignified to be merry; and 
the staid parents often check the laughter of the litle ones on 
this same ground; preferring to pay doctors’ bills and bury 
the children rather than let them get their health and vitality 
in the way that has been designed by an All-wise Father. 

Do not for a moment think that the Vitality Club is one of 
merriment. It is not. Its methods are not those of merri¬ 
ment. It follows out a close and thorough study of vitality 
from every standpdint, and thus makes good the third Car¬ 
dinal Point of Health. Then it includes, as a means of making 



158 The Ralston Health Club 

its system complete, the fourth Cardinal Point, which is 
merriment. 

What we wish to describe here is the organ of laughter with 
which all humanity is provided, but which is too often for¬ 
gotten and neglected. This organ is located at the floor of 
the lungs and heart. It is also above the roof of the stom¬ 
ach, and involves directly the liver, the stomach, the heart and 
the lungs in all its activities. 

The principle of activity is that it gives motion to the tissue 
of which the body is composed; that motion breaks down 
millions of cells of life in every second of time; the blood is ex¬ 
cited to come in at the breach and to leave many times more 
new cells than are broken down; and the parts under the ex¬ 
citement are thus given a large amount of new material with 
which to repair the loss. 

If this activity did not occur, there would be no repair 
and no health; but the body would grow old at once, and be 
very feeble. Let, therefore, the law be well understood. 
There must be activity, and there must be new material in 
the blood, the material must be of value, there must be a 
breakdown of the old tissue, and the new must be attracted' 
in to take its place. 

This present age is running mad with the silliest systems of 
physical training ever known. Anything that can be called 
physical culture is being employed, and this enables the pro¬ 
moters to advertise all kinds of so-called physical training 
methods. More harm is being done than when there were 
none at all, for the people get the idea that anything that 
exercises the muscles is good for them. This is not so. 

The habit of enlarging the chest muscles is sure to hurt the 
lungs, because the latter are muscle-bound thereby. Then 
most of all the movements given are hard on the heart, which 
weakens that organ. Many a death has been caused by such 
mistakes. 

The one thing needful is to bring certain activities directly 


Merriment 


159 


into the heart, the lungs, the stomach and the liver. The 
last named organ will not act when there is much food in the 
stomach until it is given certain movements of its own struc¬ 
ture; and these cannot be imparted by physical training, ex¬ 
cept in a very few and exceedingly rare instances. We have 
examined over six hundred systems of physical training, and 
have not, in a single instance, found one that would thus act 
on the digestive system. This is saying a good deal. And 
we have not found one that would not hurt the heart and 
lungs, if indulged in as directed by the promoters. 

The usual exercises make the muscles in and around the 
surface of the organ strong and vital; but the good is wanted 
within more than at such places. 

The organ of merriment need not be used to cause laughter 
in order to do the work of laughter. Of course, there is 
nothing that will set the liver going so well as laughter; but 
some persons cannot laugh, and they should have substitute- 
action. Some suffer from grief that renders the prospect of 
employing the laughing organ very remote. If they are not 
morbid nature re-acts and gives them the spirit of merriment 
in subdued form. But even for them there are exercises 
that are capable of producing the results of laughter and yet 
that do not require laughing. These are provided in the 
book of the Vitality Club. 

Physical training does not reach the cells and tissue-struc¬ 
ture of the heart, the lungs, the liver or the stomach, and 
does not in fact, as is claimed for it except in rare instances, 
set in motion the fluids of digestion. If a person takes a 
walk, the muscles of the body that are employed in walking 
get the exercise; and they also get the nutrition that the blood 
has to offer. They get even the vitalizing effects of the walk¬ 
ing. 

To set in motion the cells and tissue-structure of the organs 
such as the heart, stomach, etc., requires peculiar movements; 
a few of which are found in the Ralston system known as 


i6o 


The Ralston Health Club 


“ Culture,” which is free at the fifteenth degree of the Ralston 
Club. 

But to reach them more easily, the laughing organ is the 
best; for its action is decided, is directly in contact with the 
vital organs, is full of vitality and shakes every cubic inch 
of such organs without taxing the nerve centers as does walk¬ 
ing or other specific physical action. This makes it the 
natural method of vitalizing and re-building those organs. 
For instance, when the laughing organ is doing its work 
the heart shakes and the lungs dance with rhythmic motion, 
yet no tax is placed on the nerve centers or on the system. At 
the same time the stomach is given the only movement that 
reaches its structural parts and invites the juices to their work. 
By tests in comparison one minute of laughing-exercise does 
more good to the stomach than a year of any substitute, for 
it shakes the organ with a gentle yet powerful action that 
nothing else can do, and this is what builds its tissue and re¬ 
news its structure. 

The means for merriment and the causes of laughter are 
given full investigation under the plan stated in the Vitality 
Club. Much good has come from it, and more is sure to 
follow. Real laughter is recommended for those who can 
laugh or who wish to learn to do so; but for all others there is 
given the same exercise of the organ of merriment without 
mirth or frivolity. ^This method is new. There is nothing 
old or previously published in the system. Even the in¬ 
stigations to laughter are new and dramatic in their effects. 

The splendid exercises and social methods which are set 
forth in the book of the Vitality Club, ought to become at 
once a part of every home life, no matter what may be the 
condition of the health of its members; for no person can too 
soon take up this glorious medicine of nature that has done 
more healing than all the drugs of all the ages that ever have 
come and gone. 


CHAPTEK EIGHTEEN 


Living like a Ralstonite 

•J- JUST A LITTLE THOUGHT AT TIMES ^ 
JUST A LITTLE COMMON SENSE 
AND A WILLINGNESS TO FIND ^ 
^ NATURE’S SIMPLEST ELEMENTS -J* 



EFORE BRINGING this volume to a close, we 
deem it tO' the advantage of our members to pre¬ 
sent to them a brief system of taking advantage 
of the methods of living which are given through¬ 
out the pages of this book. This does not mean that the 
book is not to be read; for all interested Ralstonites read a 
little each day. One minute in every twenty-four is not 
much to devote to. this volume; and there are many who 
boast of having read a page of Ralstonism every day for 
many years. 

We have said that the two Cardinal Points of Health, 

Vitality and Merriment, are contained in the book of the 
Vitality Club; the former making a large work in spite of all 
we could do to condense it; but not by any means as large 
as the giant volume of Ralston Gardens. 

The other two Cardinal Points of Health are what to eat 


and what to do; or food, and the day’s activities. These 
are to be considered briefly at this part of the present work. 
What to eat is fully considered in the Knowledge Division, 
and need only be referred to as we summarize; but a few new 
ideas will be worked into the presentation of the facts. 


II 



162 


The Ralston Health Club 


“ What to do ” will include many little details that go to 
make up the whole day’s living. We will begin on Monday 
morning, and on the first day of January. Aside from the 
good resolutions and the lateness of the rising, we will regard 
the day as any one of the mid-winter months; so that any 
January or February day will answer to our description. 

In the first place do not get up too late. Do not lie in bed 
on any winter morning after the sun is making the east 
bright. Get up in time to take everything easily, and so 
not rush to get caught up with the duties. We know that 
there are some who will cry that this is nonsense to rise early; 
it is nonsense to rise at all if you need the sleep; and if you 
have been turning the day inside out, do not read any further. 
The patent medicines were made for you. They and your 
misery are partners. 

If the room is cold, dress in a hurry; and let that be the 
only hurry of your life. In every thing else, take things 
easy.” Get out of bed the moment you get awake, if it is 
time to do so; for you must not form the habit of lying in bed 
after you wake up. It is the worst of all sleeping habits, and 
invites restlessness in efforts to get asleep at night, as well as 
the sluggish nature. When you are awake, see if it is time to 
be up; which will mean that it is within a half hour of sunrise, 
or any time before the east is very bright; then slap yourself 
hard enough to make the blood tingle, and jump right out of 
bed with a vim that shows decision of character. Remember 
that the lazy sluggard lies abed and gets morning doses. 

If the weather and temperature permit, it is well to give 
the body a rubbing down, to throw off the urea that clings 
to the skin from the nights repose. This is a poison and 
should not be shut up in the clothing all day long. You 
will feel better and be better if you have the skin pure and 
sweet to begin with; and catarrh or clogging of the system 
will be less likely to follow. A quick bath may be taken by 
undressing the upper half of the body and using a sponge 


Living Like A Ralstonite 


163 

and cool water; drying the neck, face and shoulders first; 
then proceed to the chest and dry that; then to the abdomen; 
and so finish the upper half. Do not allow the body to be 
subjected to much wetting in a room that is not of high 
temperature; and keep bathing in small sections to prevent 
loss of animal heat. This kind of bathing is very beneficial. 
Then dress the upper half of the body and bathe the lower, 
using the same care. If you can get in a bathtub all the 
better. A morning bath in cool or cold weather should not 
occupy more than three minutes for the whole of it. Hence 
speed is needed, as it is a part of the hurry process of getting 
dressed. 

All the first movements of the day should be made in a 
hurry; and they all relate to dressing. After the night’s rest 
the functions are all sluggish and the use of speed will make 
them normal and healthful for their day’s work, if this is done 
when the stomach is empty and in the very first duties of the 
day. For this reason, you should acquire the habit of jump¬ 
ing out of bed with the greatest possible alacrity, of bathing 
with rapidity and of dressing with speed. You will feel 
much better for it. 

The same principle would be carried into effect with your 
horse if you possessed one. It is well known that the con¬ 
dition of the skin of the horse determines his health, and 
especially the good that he is to get from his food. If the 
hair and skin are not thoroughly exercised a long time each 
day, the horse will not get good from what he eats and he 
will be worth fifty per cent less in his day’s work. For this 
reason many horsemen take unusually great pains in the care 
of the skin. 

Most human beings get out of bed at the last moment, then 
get lazily into their clothes, with the urea of the skin clog¬ 
ging the pores, and a body of discomfort to be dragged 
through the weary duties of the day, having had no stirring 
up and nothing to excite into useful action the many func- 


164 


The Ralston Health Club 


tions that have been held in abeyance all night. Hence they 
will not feel well, and it would hurt them to start right, for 
they have not the will-power to do the best things for them¬ 
selves. 

They cannot raise the old cry that it takes too much time. 
This is the falsest thing they could utter. It takes much 
less time to live like a Ralstonite than it does to live the way 
they do; and it costs nothing at all. The whole story is 
summed up in the one word, laziness. 

These sluggish dummies of people who suffer all the time 
and who are too dull to do for themselves, expect to take 
medicines to cure them; and, acting after the well known 
principle of human nature, many sellers of patent drugs 
advertise that they work while you sleep.” The advertisers 
have sized up the patients, who will next expect some pro¬ 
cess whereby they will be bathed while they sleep. 

There are two results that are grand that follow the • 
methods of great activity in the morning and the quick bath 
of not more than three minutes in length. One is the free¬ 
dom of the skin from the poisons that lead to- catarrh; and 
the other is the stirring up that is given to all the inward 
activities. Appetite follows. The best of spirits follow; and 
the sense that cleanliness is next to godliness makes the 
atmosphere of each day’s life seem far more exalted because 
of it. The body is abused when it is sent to breakfast with¬ 
out this stirring up; just as the furnace of the engine is ab¬ 
used when the clogging ashes of the night before are not 
cleaned out to make way for the new fuel of the coming day. 
Food is fuel and why do you go to breakfast without stirring 
up the clogged condition of the previous night? Why do 
you put fresh coal on dead ashes? 

In other words, the real live Ralstonite is a real live in¬ 
dividual in the first ten minutes of the day. Start that way 
and you will be a new person in a few weeks. Most people 
will not heed this advice. One woman says she has done 


Living Like A Ralstonite 


165 


it and she is the picture of new health; a dozen women say 
they have not done it but are going tO' think about it, but 
consider themselves good Ralstonites just the same, and they 
go on down hill all thie time, and do not try to put into 
practice the plain truths of nature. 

If you do nothing else that is like a true Ralstonite, try 
at least this much. Try the speed of movement in getting 
out of bed and in dressing. Try the three minute bath. Do 
not make it five minutes; or, as a good lady did, a half hour, 
and then cold. Follow the rules. 

If you have bronchial trouble, throw a dash of very cold 
water on the neck and upper chest, just as you are about to 
wipe the body there. If it makes you gasp, it will do you 
good; if it does not make you gasp it will not do any good, 
and ice water will have to be used. Wipe in one second 
after the dash. Do not wait. Wipe dry. Keep at it until 
the body is in a glow at that place. 

If you have heart weakness throw a dash of cold water 
over the region of the heart and wipe as soon as possible. Do 
not repeat the same day. Just one gasp and one quick 
wiping dry; that will do the work. 

If you have indigestion, throw a dash of cold water on the 
stomach, and wipe at once. Any loss of time will cause 
colds. The shock must be followed by quick wiping. One 
man who thought he would do it by wholesale, applied the 
three dashes of cold water, one after the other, and then 
wiped them dry. He got no benefit from the bright idea. 
It is necessary to follow the directions with exactness. 

Now, after the three minute bath, get dressed as soon as 
you can. Do not put dirty clothing next to the skin. If 
you must wear it at all let it be on the outside where the 
public may see it; for it is much healthier. Never dress till 
the skin is in a glow. If you wipe by sections, beginning 
with the face and neck, you will find the whole body in a 
splendid glow. If you wipe the whole body after bathing 


The Ralston Health Club 


i66 

the whole body, it may remain cold and clammy and never 
get in a glow. Try the two ways and note the difference. 
The brush may chafe the skin but will not bring the blood 
to the whole surface at once. Wet the neck and upper chest 
and wipe them, and see how quickly the blood will come 
to that part. 

Now for the mouth. The sweetest mouth has countless 
millions of disease germs in it that have been developing 
during the night. Do not let them lodge in the throat, nor 
get to the lungs, nor enter the stomach. Salt is cheap. It 
kills these germs. Have a shaker of fine salt at hand ready 
for the morning use. Rub the salt on the gums; it will 
harden them. Rub it on the teeth; it will remove all decay. 
Let it get into the bad places, even if it hurts; for it will eat 
out the parts that are undergoing ruin, and soon leave them 
free from the danger that otherwise would soon make the 
whole mouth a ghastly graveyard. The people of Corea 
never have a bad tooth in the head; they begin to use salt 
from infancy. 

Rinse the mouth. Then get a drink of good water as pure' 
as you can find. 

Know what kind of water you are drinking. Do not take 
any chances; for more than half of the disease of the world, 
and more than two-thirds of the old age are due to the faults 
of the water that is used. You say you have no way of know¬ 
ing what the water is. Oh, yes you have. No person, in 
this age of adulterations and slow poisons in food and drink, 
is helpless. 

You are the architect of your own misery. While it is true 
that some one else sets before you the food that you eat and 
the water that you drink, you have a way of knowing what 
they are and whether they are fit for the stomach or not; and 
that way is by a local club. You can organize one, and your 
club may operate with others in the same locality to the end 
that everything eaten and drunk may be known. We had 


Living Like A Ralstonite 


167 


such societies many years ago; but they were not effective 
because of the fact that some members insisted on regular 
meetings, while the persons whose time was valuable and 
who were the most desirable associates for the clubs would 
not agree to attend regularly. Let them now be formed to 
merely exist, and to have committees appointed to do certain 
work, and to meet as they may be called. See the earlier 
pages of this book on the subject. 

Of all the deaths by typhoid, nine out of every ten are 
wanton throwing of life away. Note this : A Ralstonite had 
a beautiful daughter and she died of typhoid fever. He had 
been warned times enough that his well was surface drainage. 
Did he care? Yes. Did he love his daughter? Yes. Did 
he try to save her life when she was sick? Oh, yes. Did he 
try to prevent the sickness? No. Not at all. He simply 
took his chances. He did not believe that she would take 
the fever and die, as she had never had it before. So he 
went along and took his chances. He has another daughter. 
Has he removed the well? No. This case is typical of the 
highest types of human civilization of to-day. We know of 
a hundred wells of water from which a thousand men, women 
and children have died of typhoid fever. We said this a year 
ago. Since then many have died from the same cause. We 
say it now. A year hence many more will have died from 
the same cause; which is drinking the water from these wells. 

Of all the water that is put into the stomach, there is not 
one quart in a thousand that does not contain some danger. 
Let clubs be organized and let something be done. Stop 
charging to the Creator the taking away of beautiful children 
who die of typhoid fever. These thousands of deaths each 
year are due to the wanton stupidity of the people. 

Now, after rinsing the stomach out, get into the sun or the 
light, and get a number of deep breaths of pure air. You 
say it is too early to get up. If it is after the sun has made 
the east light, it is not too early. There is plenty to do. 


168 The Ralston Health Club 

If you will have to wait for some time for breakfast, g'et some 
of the cooked flaked breakfast food, of the dark brown hue, 
and eat it. If you do not like it, eat it just the same. Let it 
remain in the mouth as long as you can, and thus carry the 
saliva to the stomach. 

If you will not take the dried cooked breakfast food, get a 
cup of the hottest water in the house, and put in two table¬ 
spoonfuls of rnalted milk, and stir till all is dissolved; then 
drink and hold in the mouth so as to swallow gradually. Six 
mouthfuls of the dry cooked dark-flaked breakfast food, or 
two tablespoonfuls of the malted milk; will prove almost a 
breakfast. All the combined duties of the morning thus far 
outlined will serve to make you free from headaches, unless 
your vitality is low. If it is go to the second Ralston degree 
at once. 

Never use the eyes on an empty stomach in the morning 
It is a good rule never to do so anyway; but in the morning 
to use the eyes for reading or work, is sure to bring on 
trouble very suddenly and when least expected. 

If your hours of rising are ahead of the family, make them 
good Ralstonites, and all of you will soon dwell together like 
people who are learning the art of sensible living. Convert 
them to your ways. The result will be plenty of time for 
the morning pleasures, no hurry, and no cramming of the 
breakfast down an unwilling oesophagus, with the sight of 
thousands of bottles of patent medicine looming up in the 
near future. 

What we say has reference to every day in the year. We 
began by talking of the winter months with reference to 
the time of rising; but now we wish you to get up with the 
sun day by day, if you can be induced to do so. If not, 
then get up as early as you can. The bad men and women of 
the world are never the early risers; but are the late retirers. 
Virtue, honor and honesty go to bed early and get up early. 
By this is not meant that all who retire late are bad; but it 


Living Like A Ralstonite 


169 


means that the time for honor and honesty to be abed is when 
the midnight hours are yet ahead; and the time for them 
to arise is when the sun is tinting the eastern skies. Most 
people think it is smart to reverse this rule; and they pay the 
the penalty for their foolishness. They can defy nature; but 
she will exact the penalty; and, when they are tossing on 
beds of misery, she is blessing others who believe in her as 
the mother of health and happiness. 

When people learn this primary lesson, the patent medicine 
bottles will cease to make rubbish heaps in the back yards, 
and the bank accounts will begin to grow accordingly. 

The hair must have some attention in the morning. We 
notice that the comb and the brush are fetid and fermenting. 
They have a sour smell. Let them be kept clean by scalding 
and do not let any matter collect in them. Never use a sour 
towel, a sour comb or a sour brush. Boric acid is helpful 
when hot water will not suffice, but much of it hurts the hair. 

Your breath is not good, and your skin is yellow. Is there 
any vessel of impure matter under the bed or in the stand? 
Doctors say these are found, and generally open, in nine 
sleeping rooms out of every ten, and do great injury to the 
blood. 

Look over the breakfast menu. See in advance what it is 
to be. Make your landlady a Ralstonite, for she will save 
money by her adherence to the right things to eat, and you 
will get a greater variety of food and more enjoyment. The 
Ralston foods, as published in the great department of Rals¬ 
ton Gardens, which is free at the fifth degree, contains the 
longest list of enjoyable eatables ever set before a king, and it 
will keep an unending variety in the home year in and year 
out. 

If you have a long time to wait before breakfast, either get 
the pure outdoor air, or else employ yourself with something 
to do that needs attention. You say you have too little time 
for self-improvement; but here may be an hour or a half, 


170 


The Ralston Health Club 


that is on your hands, and that you have generally been 
spending in bed.^ Do not let the stomach remain long empty, 
for your face will soon lose its red tinge, and you will be 
bilious. 

The regular breakfast should be the heaviest meal of the 
day if you can make it so. At all events the evening meal, 
or that which is eaten at any time after twelve or one o’clock 
should be the lightest. Take no heavy food later than two 
o’clock in the afternoon under any circumstances, for the 
health will soon give way if you do. You may be able to 
avert the fall till a late day; but, when it comes, you will be 
helpless. If the morning meal cannot be made the heaviest 
of the day, then the noon meal must be. There is no ex¬ 
ception to this law. 

We have tested the question for over a quarter of a century 
and have had more opportunities for getting at the facts 
than any other body of investigators. When we are dealing 
with theories, we are willing to yield to the opinions of others, 
if we are not sure of our correctness; but when we know a 
fact to be a fact, and know its results to be facts proved over 
and over again without variation in their workings, we will 
not yield our position to any person on earth. Some people, 
who wish to please others, profess to believe that the waste of 
day is made up at night. 

The mental and nervous losses of the day are all repaired 
at night; but repair is not fuel. The brain and nerves must 
have fuel to work with all day long; and that fuel should be 
put in the body in advance of its use, not after the period 
of activity is drawing to a close. To go to bed with the 
body filled to the brim with the fuel of an evening meal, is 
to clog the whole machinery, and it also means that the fuel 
is making an effort to keep nerves and muscles active all 
night. 

What kind of repose is that in which muscle-making food 


Living Like A Ralstonite 


171 

and nerve-making food are fighting to do their work, when 
nerves and muscles are in need of rest for repair? 

If such fuels are taken in the day time and in advance of 
their use, they will repair as fast as they break down tissue, 
and the new body will be all the stronger and tougher for it. 
If the repair of muscles and tissue is carried on at night, the 
body will be flabby and unhealthy, and the nerves and brain 
will not be refreshed by the abnormal conditions. 

In every possible way have we tested these things, and we 
have found that the morning meal should be the greatest of 
the day, the noon meal the next, and the evening meal the 
lightest. The latter should consist of sleep-producing foods, 
for they aid in the natural and sweet rejuvenating of the mind 
and nerves, and bring the stomach hungry to the table the 
next morning. 

It is not quantity that constitutes the value of a meal. 
Look at the possibilities of a good or bad breakfast. This 
first meal of the day should be as plain and as nourishing as 
it can be made. This is on the principle that the first food 
of the new day should not be sickening or distressing. It, 
of all others, should be substantial and clean in every respect. 

What do most people eat for breakfast? In the first place 
they do not have clean stomachs to put anything into; for the 
remnants of the clogging meal of the night before are still 
there. There are two things to attain before one sits down 
to breakfast; the first is to have a clean system into which 
to put the food of the morning; and the other is to have 
the system free from the clogging food of the night before. 

Many persons are taken up with the fad of going without 
breakfast, on the ground that it serves to clean out the sys¬ 
tem from the clogging material. This claim is true as far 
as it goes; but the same result might have been better attained 
by omitting the evening meal and then coming hungry to 
breakfast. Those who have tried the omission of the break¬ 
fast have, in quite a number of cases, had tO' pay a severe 


172 


The Ralston Health Club 


penalty. Some have died from the effects of using the body 
half a day without fuel. Neuralgia is the first signal of 
danger. 

People do not eat often enough, and they eat too much all 
the time or too much part of the time. If they omit break¬ 
fast, they get a ravenous hunger at night, which is a re¬ 
verse of the purposes of nature. Many persons claim that 
they have no appetite at breakfast ; and the fact is they have 
all their appetite at night or for the evening meal. Let the 
latter be omitted, and they will come to the breakfast table 
hungry; then, if they are wise enough to start the day with 
clean and wholesome food, they will feel the good results 
of it all day long. 

These facts have no attraction for those who wish to jump 
out of bed and jump at once to the table, pick over a few 
things that nauseate them, and then let the hunger of the 
day come on in full force for the evening meal, after which 
they stuff the system with cake and sweetmeats, candy or 
anything that will fill up the hungry crevices; and go tO' bed, 
only to be tossed in dreams or racked by muscles and nerves 
that twitch all night while they sleep more or less soundly; 
and leave them dull and yellow when the time comes for 
rising in the next morning. 

Better, far better, is it to eat nothing after two o’clock of 
any day when you have no appetite for breakfast; and then 
see how quickly you will find an appetite for the coming 
morn. 

Start the day right; and then let the faults of living come in 
as they can after that. Get up right; dress right; take some 
action in the right way; go to the breakfast table hungry; eat 
plain food and plenty of it; and then you can abuse your 
body all the rest of the day, and the penalties will not be half 
so great as now. 

Do not eat sweet things for breakfast. Omit fried and 
greasy food. Omit meats that are hard cooked, or cooked 


Living Like A Ralstonite 


173 


over; have everything as plain as possible, but in great variety. 
Make the meal the most attractive of the day. Omit ham 
and pork, pancakes, buckwheats, etc., at the morning meal; 
for they only serve to start the day wrong by filling the stom¬ 
ach with sickish and nauseating foods. Your complexion will 
largely depend on what you eat for breakfast. In the great 
book of Ralston Gardens, all the meals of the days are fully 
set forth with all kinds of food for all kinds of people for all 
times of the year and in all kinds of climes. 

The best way of eating is a way that no one will adopt; and 
it seems like a waste of words to present it here. The eating 
of five light meals each day, with the heaviest in the first half 
of the day, is strictly scientific and hygienic. The present 
custom of eating only three, is unscientific, and it is made 
worse by the lack of balance in having the day begin without 
hunger, owing to the heavy meal of the evening before. 

The facts presented in the foregoing pages of this book tell 
you all about the value of foods, and the general principles of 
eating. No person can ever read those facts without ab¬ 
sorbing some of them, and the result is that they will put them 
into use, almost unconsciously. We, therefore, recommend 
that you read a page or two daily from the department of 
knowledge in this book. Do not try to adopt the whole 
plan, as it is too extensive. Let one or two new ideas each 
day come into your life, and you will soon find yourself living 
up to the doctrines which are there taught. 

There should be a reasonable amount of activity of the 
whole body out in the open air during the first hour after 
each of the three principal meals of the day. Most persons 
are so situated that they cannot get this activity; and those 
who have command of their time, allow their social duties or 
inclinations to come first, and their health to come last. It 
is a rule of all who are invalids or of broken health, or of 
low vitality, that they permit the consideration of matters of 
health to come last of all things in life; and they pay, bitterly 
for it. 


174 


The Ralston Health Club 


Whether people can or cannot get an hour of gentle activity 
out in the open air after each meal, the fact remains the same, 
that nature demands it, and will not take any substitute. 
When she made a body of muscles and nerves that were en¬ 
dowed with the faculties of great and varied activity, ghe 
never contemplated their almost total non-use by humanity. 
A life cannot be diverted to conditions which are exactly 
the opposite of those for which it was constituted. 

The health of all the faculties is vastly better when they are 
employed; and vastly worse when they are allowed to rust. 

The reason why the activity should occur after eating is be¬ 
cause the body invites nutrition directly from the food, which 
leads to the assimilation of its value; whereas, if the body 
rests after eating, the food-value is largely lost, and the re¬ 
quired strength is not attained. Then, again, the formation 
of urea is natural if there is an abundance of gentle exercise 
for an hour after eating, especially in the open air. 

People who have given a fair trial to this plan of living, 
all agree that they are in much better condition and that they 
do not suffer from the tendencies toward the formation of 
uric acid and rheumatism which follow the habits of quietude 
after eating. 

Violent activity stops all digestion, when there is food in 
the stomach. Gentle activity aids digestion at such time. 

Rest for fifteen minutes before eating, prepares the nervous 
functions of digestion for their work, and aids very much in 
the after efforts of the stomach to digest its food. Such rest 
tones down the weary fluctuations of the nerves that are 
to take part in the work of digestion. Too many persons go 
to the table all played out as far as their vitality for eating 
and assimilation of food is concerned, and the habit of resting 
is the best method of correcting that evil. 

Rest after eating tends to serve the lazy disposition, and 
to clog the digestive system. 


Living Like A Ralstonite 


175 


The liver refuses to begin its work after a meal until there 
is some physical activity. 

All these principles are nature’s method. If people will 
not heed them they must pay the penalties. No medicines, 
no trips abroad, no sanitarium for the wealthy, no treatment 
that man ever invented or will ever invent, can cope with this 
great fact. Nature must have her way in this, if she never 
does in any other thing; and, as sure as she is thwarted, she 
will assert herself just as plainly as she does when she makes 
death follow poison. It is her way. 

The use of activity preceding a meal has value in the fact 
that it tends to clear out the clogging matter; and thus the 
old saying that exercise on an empty stomach will beget an 
appetite, is true in this way. But it serves no other purpose. 
On the other hand, it is well known that tired and nervous 
people are benefited by taking a rest just before a meal. 

The kind of exercise that should follow eating is not very 
material; except that it must not be training, nor severe activ¬ 
ity. Long and wearying work will do more harm than good. 
There should be no tax on the strength or vitality. Fre¬ 
quent rests should be had. Play is much to be preferred, es¬ 
pecially if it has any laugh in it; for laughter is the best di¬ 
gester of food that has ever been found. 

Fruit taken just before the noon meal and just before the 
evening meal, will help to digest the food. It should also 
precede the breakfast if there is any constipation. When 
taken for the purposes of aiding digestion, it should be eaten 
at the table and as the first course there. When taken to re¬ 
lieve constipation, it should be eaten an hour before break¬ 
fast, and the evening meal of the day before should be 
omitted. 

The exercise that is to follow the three meals, should be 
such as will give the greatest degree of activity to the digest¬ 
ive organs; and the raising of the hand high over the head 
tends to do this most effectively. A large variety of such 


176 


The Ralston Health Club 


movements may be invented at will. If a scientific system 
is wished, let the great book of the fifteenth degree be em¬ 
ployed. It deals with the many questions of personal culture. 

If you make up your mind to form a partnership with na¬ 
ture, then try to get the hour’s activity three times a day, and 
immediately after each of the three meals. If you can go 
out doors, go by all ineans, no matter how inconvenient it 
may be. Do not ride or drive; walk all the way, and let the 
walk be as long as possible, so that you do not get very 
weary. In fact, the habit of taking an hour’s walk after each 
meal will do wonders in any case where there is trouble in 
the digestive system, or where uric acid is forming and tend¬ 
ing toward rheumatism. 

If you cannot get out of doors, take all the exercise that 
you can get within the house, and have the windows open 
if that can be done. There are thousands of ways in which 
you can move the muscles gently, as in walking about^ 
stretching, raising the arms high over the head, pulling imag¬ 
inary ropes, ringing imaginary bells, tugging with imaginary 
persons, attending to many things that call you to your feet, 
breathing deeply, expanding and contracting the chest, rais¬ 
ing and lowering the vital organs, stooping tO' the front, to 
the right, to the left, and backward, and so on without limit. 
All long swinging movements of the arms are of great value, 
if they are carried to a high position in part of their action, 
and also if the lungs are made to inhale as they are raised. 

If your duties are sedentary, see if they may not be per¬ 
formed by standing at intervals; for standing is of great value 
when the chest is held up and forward so as to give freedom 
to the vital functions that are taking place within. Learn 
to stand on the feet all you can; but not long at a time; for, 
if you get very tired doing this, you will take a dislike tO' it. 
Long life and good health are begotten in standing and not 
in sitting. 

Many persons take all kinds of drugs and doses for aiding 


Living Like A Ralstonite 


177 


digestion; and the use of pepsin in some form is constantly 
growing; but there can be no incubator process of digestion 
and no artificial means employed that will not, ere long, 
bring the patient nearer to the grave. The best thing to do 
is to form a partnership with nature and get well by natural 
means. Her laws require activity after each meal, and the 
fresh air and sunshine are needed by humanity just as much 
as they are by the hothouse plants, and under exactly the 
same conditions. The pining and shrinking of the energy 
and health of the plant can be traced tO’ the same lack of 
nature as the man or woman who tries to get along without 
this greatest of all blessings. 

To abandon the teachings of nature and fall back on the ar¬ 
tifices of medicine, is to give evidence of a defect of mind that 
is hard to account for. It is probable that most any malady 
may receive, at some stage of its progress, stimulating 
power from artificial sources; but the temporary help that is 
thus given puts the heaviest of all mortgages on the health 
of the future. The victim of drugs, however keen the mind 
may be in other things, is grossly ignorant of the inexorable 
and fearful laws of nature. 

In this era, human vitality is at its lowest ebb; and this is 
due to the fact that people are willing to trust their health 
and the hope of its revival, to the hundred thousand mixtures 
that are placed on the market for sale. The most intelligent 
men and women are unwilling to try nature until they have 
exhausted the promises of the quacks who advertise so many 
patent medicines, the merits of which they believe in until 
each Spell of sickness brings them one notch nearer tO' the 
grave. This willingness of the public to buy and to pour 
into their stomachs the countless drugs that are for sale, 
has been taken as proof that the American people have not 
acquired that hard, common sense that their ancestors pos¬ 
sessed. We Speak of the so-called intelligent classes; those 
who are known as the ignorant masses are abject slaves to 


12 


178 


The Ralston Health Club 


patent medicines. True intelligence rejects all nostrums and 
looks to the only source of health that God ever gave, and 
that is nature. 

The body is but the result of what is eaten. When a person 
is taken down with a spell of sickness, the physician seeks 
first to reduce the onward march of the disease, during which 
time the stomach is kept from food as much as possible; and 
it is in this interim of time that the accumulated poisons are 
thrown off by the fever that burns them up. After the crisis 
has passed, and the body is coming into the stage of con¬ 
valescence, every effort is made by the modern, the scientific 
and the successful physician, to re-build the wasted body by 
the greatest possible care as to what is eaten. Then, and 
not at any other time, are the foods selected for the good 
they will do; and, if the judgment be correct, the result will 
be that the sick system will take on a new lease of life, even 
going into better conditions of health than ever before, be¬ 
cause care has been taken to make the new parts with pure 
foods. Many thousands of invalids have found themselves 
in much better physical life after a spell of dangerous illness. 
They seek to explain it on the ground that the sickness drove 
out the poisons from the system. 

In this they are right. But how did those poisons get 
there? It is in answer to this question that much of the 
Knowledge Division of the book has been written. How 
did those poisons get there? It is a common error for 
people to suppose that sickness is due to germs. It takes 
three things to make a person sick in what is called disease. 
The immediate cause is exposure to germs, or to the last 
stage that is necessary to bring on the malady, such as damp¬ 
ness, chilling drafts, and the like. But this immediate cause 
will not have effect unless the exposure is very flagrant and 
wilfully severe. A very great degree of carelessness, as in 
standing in a draft, or walking on a damp street with thin 
shoes on the feet, or something as stupid, will of course bring 
on cold or pneumonia to the strongest constitution. 


Living Like a Ralstonite 


179 


But we are speaking of those causes that operate and come 
into terrible effect in spite of all the care that can be taken 
to avoid exposure. They are brought on by the poisons that 
have been put into the system through wrong methods in 
diet or food selection and preparation. It takes three things 
to produce disease. One is the cold or the exposure to 
germs; the second is the presence of poisons in the body; 
and the third is the lowering of the vitality tO' a stage where 
the malady can fasten its hold on the system. 

To sum up: there must be the exciting cause, the low vital¬ 
ity and the presence of poisons in the system; and, until all 
three of these influences combine, there can be no known dis¬ 
ease. A person may die from the cold by being subjected to 
a low temperature, but not from cold as generally understood. 
A cold is the mucus-poison that has been collecting in the 
body from bad food, the irritating nature of which has in¬ 
flamed the membranes of the body until they are clogged 
with the foreign matter and seek to throw it off by burning 
it up, through the fever of pneumonia or the flow of catarrhs. 

Other diseases are dependent upon some forms of poison 
that have been drawn into the body by the foods eaten. 
Some things that are good to eat in certain forms are made 
bad by the way they are combined, and they set up a disturb¬ 
ance in the body. Sugar and starch in combination, especi¬ 
ally if the starch has been insufficiently cooked, will cause 
ferment in the stomach and intestine, and thus do injury; as 
is seen in cake and pastry. The result of eating such food 
is to All the body with the poisons from a kind of ferment that 
is particularly the enemy of life; and soon after there is a 
clogging of the system, which will try to clear itself through 
the membrane, and there inflammation sets in, and a cold 
follows. If the poisons are of sufficient accumulation, the 
result will be pneumonia. 

Too much food is eaten daily by the invalid classes; and of 
that which is eaten by those who do not take too much, a 


i8o 


The Ralston Health Club 


large share is unfit for the stomach. These poisons, added to 
the lack of the right employment of the body in its daily activ¬ 
ities, furnish the food on which disease feeds when it comes. 
Some maladies come but once or twice in a lifetime for the 
reason that they eat up all the accumulated poisons and no 
more come. This is seen in such cases as those of smallpox 
and other diseases that rarely appear a second time. The 
virus of vaccination furnishes a mild attack from germs that 
feed on the poisons that are peculiar to that malady; the re¬ 
sult being that the poisons are eaten up, and exposure to the 
real smallpox germs fails to bring harm, because there are 
no more poisons left for those germs to feed upon. 

But the germs of la grippe, of colds, or catarrhs, and of 
pneumonia, as well as of many other diseases, feed on differ¬ 
ent poisons, and these are quickly accumulated in the body 
when the diet is wrong, and the habits are sluggish or over¬ 
taxing. Too little activity and too great activity are both 
bad extremes. 

The plan set forth in this chapter is founded on the prin¬ 
ciples that have their birth in the heart and mind of the great 
mother of us all,— nature; and to ignore such principles will 
bring on the disasters that make humanity a ready prey to 
all the ills that beset the world. The public pay a fearfully 
big bill every year, because of their wilful ignorance of this 
great fact. They go on with their medicines always taking 
the down hill path toward the grave. Each new spring sees 
them and their medicines so much the poorer and sO' much 
the nearer to the final collapse. Their partnership is with 
the poisons that they pour intO' the system; and two thousand 
millions of dollars are paid every year in this country by these 
people for these poisons; while the progress is graveward. 
This is an awful bill for ignorance and stupiSity. 

Ralstonites are not of them; for they form a partnership 
with NATURE and are on the upward road to health and pros¬ 
perity coupled with every phase and condition of happiness. 

May it so ever be. 


OUR COUNTRY CAPITAL 

A DESCRIPTION OF 

THE FUTURE “CITY OF RALSTON’’ 


In the early chapters of this book we have made reference 
to two capitals, one in the city and the other in the country. 
They are called the Ralston Capitals. That in the city is 
in Washington, D. C. That in the country is at Hopewell, 
New Jersey. It is in the capital county of that State, which 
is Mercer County, in which are situated the city of Trenton 
with its State House; also Princeton University, a few miles 
north of Trenton and a few miles east of Hopewell; also 
Pennington Seminary, and other educational institutions that 
are well known. 

The so-called future ‘‘Ralston City’’ is located on a hill, 
and is almost exactly half way between two great cities. New 
York and Philadelphia; and is but a few rods from the station 
which is on the main railroad line between those two cities. 
It is thus favored in an especial manner. 

The accompanying photographic views are exact repro¬ 
ductions of Ralston Heights, as we call the hill, after six 
years of gradual and unhurried work to transform a rough 
stubble ground into a garden of beauty. We have made 
good our claim that any place may be made to conform to 
two great principles; one of which is that country life may 
be made fascinating as well as healthful; and the other is 
that country residence may be given all the conveniences 
of city life without any of the dangers of ill-health. 

Ralstonism is made up of constant experimenting in every 
possible direction, and in all the various kinds of living. We 
do what we can, and we ask members also to do what they 


i 82 The Ralston Health Club 

can, to get hold of new facts, or to put to the test all the 
claims that may arise from day to day in the general world, 
where they seem to have some semblance of truth or value; 
and if you, or any of your friends., wish to take part in making 
experiments under our directions in your locality, we shall be 
glad to have you do so. We have, in the past, had the aid 
of an immense number of men and women in testing many 
of the facts that we set forth in our various books. 

What we now refer to as the future “ Ralston City,” or, as 
it is often termed, the future “ City of Ralston,” is altogether 
in the future as a city; for we have only just got underway 
with the changes in the surface of the earth at this locality. 
We have proved that a barren cornfield, that had been 
allowed to run to exhaustion by careless and unscientific 
farming, can be made into a beautiful garden in a very few 
years. It does not take long to do this. In three years we 
had more peaches than we could make use of, and they were 
of forty different varieties, one tree of a kind. In two years 
we had a vast abundance of grapes, of every color and variety, 
from the black, purple and blue, to the pink, red, brown, 
green, yellow, white, amber, and other colors, all sweet, juicy, 
fragrant and delicious, extending over a period of three 
months, during which time they were eaten from the vines 
as fresh as nature can make them. In every year, we have 
the same abundance of this most wholesome and health- 
inspiring fruit. It requires but little culture, although severe 
annual pruning is necessary in order to make sure of constant 
bearing. 

It is this one result that we wish all Ralstonites to get, for 
grapes will grow most anywhere, and they are the most in¬ 
vigorating of foods if obtainable fresh from the hand of 
nature. 

Peach-flesh and grape juice are unparalleled articles of diet 
for all people. 

Then we experimented with all kinds of pears, and find 


Our Country Capital 


183 


that we can raise fifty varieties, from the earliest to the latest. 
This can be done in the greater part of the United States. 
Our pear trees were in generous bearing in four years after 
we set them out. 

We are raising more than one hundred varieties of apples, 
one tree of a kind. They are now in bearing; although some 
bore in five years. We find that many of them are especially 
valuable as means of nutrition, and particularly for the pur¬ 
poses of aiding digestion; while there are dozens of the well 
known kinds that are not suitable for the human stomach, 
and are capable of doing much injury to the health. As soon 
as certain tests are concluded, we shall freely supply our mem¬ 
bers with exact reports. 

We deem this important, for it is well proved that longevity 
is almost exclusively dependent on the using of fruit. This 
does not mean that old people are to live on fruit, but that 
they require some fruit of certain kinds each day, and the 
use of such food must begin in early life before the old age 
conditions are fairly started. Many persons past thirty, and 
most all past fifty are unable to digest the fats and starches 
that are easily assimilated in youth; and the blessings of fruits 
become more and more apparent and appreciated. There 
are to-day millions of people who are actually starving for the 
right kinds of fruit, and who get none at all, or else have 
to take the wrong kinds; and they suffer untold miseries 
because of this lack of nature’s great power. To be ex¬ 
clusively dependent on fruit, means that some of it must be 
taken each day, and that there is nothing that can do its work, 
if one would attain longevity free from suffering. It is the 
sole thing that is absolutely essential to holding off the 
ravages of old age. 

Every kind of plum, cherry, apricot, nectarine, quince, and 
small berry, is also under full cultivation; one or two of a kind 
being raised. Quantity is not sought; variety alone isi use¬ 
ful for the purposes of experiment. We find that certain 


184 


The Ralston Health Club 


cherries are positively hurtful, while certain others are ex¬ 
ceedingly valuable for purposes of health. The same is true 
of blackberries, the first fruit that ever appeared on earth; 
some kinds give vitality and strength, while others are not 
useful. Most strawberries are injurious; they are better 
when eaten direct from the vines. They should not be taken 
with sugar, as uric acid is the result. 

Strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, blueberries, huckle¬ 
berries, and a host of others follow each other from the begin- 
ing of the season in spring to the fall; and establish a pleasing 
succession. Pears can be kept for ten months’ succession; 
apples can be kept more than a year. 

We built a large ice-house; and the winters are just cold 
enough to enable us to get seven-inch ice. We also built 
a cold storage after well known principles; but better ideas 
have occurred to us, and we are now remodelling it with a 
view to making some advanced tests in the art of preserving 
fruits with their natural flavors; for most methods of cold- 
storage are apt to do injury to the flesh and flavor of fruit. 

Evergreen trees and shrubs are balms for the lungs and 
nerves; and they should stand on the exposed places north 
of the house. We have a grove of evergreens of twenty or 
or more kinds, and the trees now are quite large. There are 
several hundred in the grove. 

Deciduous trees and shrubs, of every kind are planted about 
the land to help change the appearance from a field on a hill 
to a garden of great beauty. Flowering shrubs keep up 
their bloom in succession from the first of April to the end 
of November. Bedded plants are in constant bloom during 
their season; and we have many thousands of them. 

As we have preached the love of nature for all our years, 
and as we believe in the good old doctrine of practicing what 
we preach, we have taken special pride in the results of the 
experiments thus far made at the country capital of Ralston- 
ism; and we present herewith some of the views taken just 


Our Country Capital 


185 

before we go to press. These are exact photographic views, 
and have not been, in any particular, aided by the artist. 

The Administrative Summer-Headquarters will be the 
home of the head of the Club for six months in the year; 
although the real home is in Washington, D. C. The office 
is located in the round tower and connecting rooms on the 
second floor; the direction being exactly due east. 

On the upper deck of the piazza, which is heavily canvassed, 
there are always shady nooks, even in the hottest weather, 
and much of the time is spent out of doors in the fresh air, 
and there is no spot on earth where the air is purer than 
here. It is at this place and amid these surroundings that 
this book is being written. 

The next view refers to the “ Garden Lawn,” or grassy 
slope on the south-western grounds where shrubs and 
gardens are interspersing the long sweep of lawns. These 
extend for several hundred feet in length. 

The Eastern Path” is very wide, and runs almost north 
and south on the western side of a long, high wall in what is 
called the Oriental Garden. It is a shaded and beautiful 
walk on hot summer mornings, and winds among foliage 
and flowers that are made to present a tropical effect, many 
of the trees and shrubs having an Oriental origin. 

The Reception Hall ” picture was taken before the Hall 
was completed and gives only a partial idea of the place. 

The “ Library ” presents only a small part of the room, 
for the camera could not be located so as to give the whole 
interior; and the result is that only one-fourth of the walls 
and their contents may be seen. 

The next view is a reproduction of the ‘‘Artificial Pond” 
which was placed at the base of a steep part of the hill, and 
seems to be resting at the hedge of an incline made by nature. 
All this portion of the land was shifted about to give a level 
base, with a sharp rise to the left. Corn grew there two 


i86 


The Ralston Health Club 


months before this change was brought about, although the 
shrubs and trees have had three years of growth. 

Tall grasses of varied shape and hue, set amid prune trees 
and Japan Spruces, Hawthornes, Ailanthus and Hercules’ 
Clubs, wave their white and purple plumes in colors over the 
water, and the glassy mirror returns them in exactitude of 
shade and tint; while the pink, yellow, blue, magenta and 
lemon colored water-lilies float idly on the surface of the little 
lake and lend their enchantment to the beauty of the scene. 
This effect is presented in the view which is marked “ Among 
the Water Lilies.” 

At the approach of twilight, there is a favorite path and 
view which is always fascinating to the eye. It is seen in the 
picture entitled the Twilight Path.” The photograph has 
been taken on the top of a sharp rise of ground from which 
the path descends. 

The “ Great Tree Hedge ” is twelve hundred feet long, 
or almost a quarter of a mile, and extends along the north of 
the fruit orchard; the purpose being to test a theory of the 
author that fruits do' much better and suffer less from sharp 
winters if they are protected by a natural hedge. It consists 
of Lombardies, Bolleanas and common poplars, banked on 
the south by Norway spruces, which are evergreen. The 
trees grew to a height of nearly fifty feet in five years, while 
the evergreens reached a height of ten or more feet in the 
same time. This hedge is seen on the left, while the edge 
of the orchard is visible at the right. On the crest of this 
rise of ground a windmill and large water tank have been 
placed, and a pressure of water is furnished at the house that 
is equal to the force provided in many cities. The water 
is absolutely pure and almost as cold as ice in mid-summer. 

“ Morningside ” is the view or stretch of landscape that is 
seen on the sunrise side of Ralston Heights; and the great 
city of New York lies over the horizon about forty miles 
away. Mercer valley is visible for a long distance; and the 


Our Country Capital 


187 


famous Royal Blue Line train is coming across the scene, 
speeding at the rate of seventy miles an hour toward Phila¬ 
delphia, thence on to Washington, Pittsburg and Chicago. 

On the sunset side of Ralston Heights, or rather on the 
crest of the hill itself, one of the most entrancing of views 
is seen. It looks toward Philadelphia, which is slightly 
nearer than New York city; and overlooks what is called 
“Pennington Mountain,” although that term is not justified 
by the height of the land so named. 

“ A Walk in the Vineyard,” is a genuine delight, for the 
vines have made a thick shade for three long paths, the 
central one of which is visible in the picture. The grapes 
hang in thousands of bunches just overhead as we stroll 
through the path, and there are long sweeps of vines on 
either side. Here many experiments are being made every 
year, that will prove of value to mankind. 

The next picture presents the roofs of the two greenhouses, 
and the brick cottage of the gardener, as well as other 
buildings. On the right is seen the flagstaff where the 
American banner floats on holidays and on the fourth of 
each month, which is Ralston day. Gardens of blackberries 
and raspberries, under the highest cultivation, are in the 
foreground. 

Running between two ponds is a little river where the 
gold fishes come up to be fed. They may be seen in the 
picture, “Gold Fish Brook,” jumping from the water to 
snatch food from the hand of the little mistress who is feeding 
them. 

The Evenside vista is a long stretch of Japanese arbor 
laden with vines. It was just one year old at the time when 
the photograph was taken. 

The western edge of the village of Hopewell is visible in 
the view that looks toward Trenton, which is about nine or 
ten miles away. The village contains many beautiful resi¬ 
dences, as well as historic grounds, and broad avenues 


188 The. Ralston Health Club 

where ancient trees thrive in their grandeur. Its thousand 
inhabitants are above the average in intelligence and 
progressiveness. 

A large herbaceous hedge, four hundred feet long, banks 
the heavy brick wall, and blends into the foliage beyond. 
From this direction is seen the ridge that separates Hopewell 
from Princeton; and, about three or four miles away, is the 
farm of Mr. Grover Cleveland, former President of the United 
States, who resides in the same county. 

The Evergreen Lane ” is a drive between the mansion and 
the forest of evergreen trees. The gateway to the left opens 
into Eastlawn. 

The “Southern Walk” is so-called because it is protected 
from the south sun by heavy hedges which rise far above 
the height of the head. 

The final view which is herein presented, is called the “ Up¬ 
land Path ” for it is at the top of a very sharp rising walk, 
and leads to the upland grounds. 

Hundreds of interesting scenes might be added. These are 
sufficient to let our members know that we are at work in 
the great realms of nature trying to extract beauty and 
health from the land. 

What we are doing, we wish all who can to duplicate, as 
far as they are able, in their own homes and localities. Do not 
think that this one spot of earth is the best; for you have 
many such in your own State and county that may be made 
just as good. 

The great lesson to be learned is that the three H’s are 
purely Ralston in their meaning; and that the goal of earthly 
existence, as for as this world is concerned, is summed up 
in the three words:— 

HEALTH HOME HAPPINESS. 


SOME FORMS TO USE. 


For the convenience of members who may have various 
wishes, we present a few Forms at this part of the book. 
Kindly remember the following- rules: 

1. Do not cut out the Forms that are contained on these 
pages. Copy them. 

2. Do not copy the inserted form at the end of the book. 
Tear it out carefully when you remit, and send it with the 
remittance. It is specially valuable and should be carefully 
guarded. 

3. Do not alter any forms, or vary them in any way; for, if 
you do, we reserve the right to fill the order in the usual way. 

FIRST FORM 

In case you wish to advance any number of degrees, 
whether one, two, three, four, or more; even up to ten, fifteen, 
or a hundred, copy the following, and fill in the blank spaces: 

“ To Ralston Publishing Company, 

1223 to 1231 G St., Washington, D. C. 

“ I wish to advance.degrees in the Ralston Club, 

and herewith send.dollars, which is at the rate of 

one dollar for each degree. In return I wish as many Cou¬ 
pons as I am now advancing degrees, each Coupon being- 
good for one Copy of this book of General Membership, or 
I do not wish to promise to secure new members and I 
therefore do not request Coupons. [Erase one or the other 
of these requests.] When I reach any of the emolument de¬ 
grees I shall be pleased to receive as presents any of the emol¬ 
uments that may be due me.” 

Sign name and full address. 

Coupons are sold at one dollar each, and are good for, a 




190 The Ralston Health Club 

copy each of this book of General Membership, when the 
name of the proposed new member has been signed by such 
member on the Coupon itself. We cannot send copies of 
this book to be given away at random to persons who do not 
wish it, or who may not be interested in the subject of health 
and good living. If you wish, instead of Coupons, copies of 
this book of General Membership, we will send them at the 
rate of $i.io each when we have the signatures of the pro¬ 
posed new members, stating as follows:—‘‘We are inter¬ 
ested in the subject of good health and right living, and 

have requested M.to procure for us copies of 

the book of General Membership. The names below are our 
own signatures.” 

The full address of each person must be sent us, as we can¬ 
not let copies of this book go out unless we have the full 
address of every person who is to receive it. 

The Coupon system is by far the best and easiest way of 
procuring new members, and will save you a lot of trouble; 
for the Coupon is then equal to a one dollar bill for the pur¬ 
poses stated. It saves handling money, sending checks or 
buying money orders. 

THE IRON GATEWAY FORM 

At the very end of this book you will find a colored leaf 
called the IRON GATEWAY. The offer made therein is 
of great value and importance to every person who is fortun¬ 
ate enough to own a copy of the present book. The IRON 
GATEWAY must be filled out within thirty days after you 
receive this book, in order to enable you to enter the great 
Realm of “ Ralston Gardens of Life ” in the manner stated. 
Eor each month you delay after thirty days, it will be neces¬ 
sary to advance an extra degree in order tO' get the giant 
volume, unless you wish to pay the regular price of twenty- 
five dollars for it. As five coupons go free with it, each good 
for one dollar for the purposes stated, and as you can easily 
sell them for one dollar each, the great volume of Ralston 



Some Forms to Use 


191 

Gardens may be had free in fact, for the five dollars which 
you pay will all come back to you. Of course you are at 
liberty to give the Coupons away, if the recipients sign them 
when they send for the copies of this book of General Mem¬ 
bership. 

Thus if you send on the 31st day after you get this book, 
it will require an advance of six degrees. If you send after 
the end of two months it will require an advance of seven 
degrees; and so on. You have the satisfaction of also get¬ 
ting closer to some of the great emoluments that follow. 

If you wish you can advance at the present time as many 
degrees as you desire. See page 40. 

If you desire a temporary number, good for a year, you can 
use the form on page 45 of this book; which form is to be cut 
out and sent as there directed. 

If you send page 45 and the IRON GATEWAY, the latter 
being at the end of this book, the total cost need be only 
five dollars, and you may secure the book of the Vitality 
Club, as well as the giant work of Ralston Gardens of Life; 
provided you do this all within thirty days after this book 
comes into your possession. 

We prepay cost of sending everything, in case you act with¬ 
in the thirty days; otherwise the cost of sending will be 
charged at fifty cents, as has been the price heretofore, al¬ 
though this does not in fact cover all the cost of sending all 
that goes with the advance of five degrees. To act within 
thirty days means that the IRON GATEWAY must be filled 
■ out and the amount remitted within thirty days after you 
get this book for the first time in your possession. The date 
when every copy is sent out is known to- us. 

The Permanent Club Number is sent at the fifth degree. 

RALSTON GARDENS OF LIFE 

is the book that every Ralstonite needs, under the plan stated 
on page 32 in Chapter Four herein. All persons who wish 
to be in Class One will enter Ralston Gardens. It is the 
book that will keep disease from the house, and that will help 
to bafifie it when it comes to those who are in Class Two un¬ 
der the plan stated on page 32 of this book. It is the greatest 
work of its kind ever published. You soon find that it is 


192 


The Ralston Health Club 


your doctor, and you are consulting' it constantly. It takes 
a personal interest in your life. 

It is the only work ever published containing the natural 
cures of disease, and furnishing the full list of natural treat¬ 
ments. Its immense value is found in these facts. Drugs 
and medicines are admitted to be poisons. They were pre¬ 
ceded by universal blood-letting, now ridiculed; and, ten 
years hence, the universal use of drugs and medicines, now 
so common, will be ridiculed. Doctors were formerly called 
'‘blood-letters;’’ after that they were called physicians, be¬ 
cause they physicked; ten years from now they will be called 
Naturists, because they will cure by natural methods; and 
Ralstonism, in one form or another, will be the basis of all 
such cures. 

This is the system of the next great step in the future. 
You want it, and we want you to have it. You cannot afford 
not to have it in your home. 

“Ralston Gardens” contains: Modern Gardens of Eden; 
Fountain of Life; Private Talks with the Author; Walk and 
Talk with Nature; all the Great Natural Treatments; the 
Natural Principles; Specific Treatment of Diseases; the extra 
systems of Massage; Movement-Cure; Vitality-Cure, Glame- 
Cure, Oxygen-Cure, Sun-Cure, Magnetism-Cure, Water- 
Cure, Morning-Cure, Air-Cure, Diet-Cure, Exercise-Cure, 
Anti Death-Cure, Respiratory-Cure, Inward-Cleansing, Tem¬ 
perature-Cure, Rest-Cure; all the Baths, Hot, Cold, Dry, In¬ 
ward, Magnetic; all of Nature’s Doctors; Diets in Sickness 
and in Health, and a thousand things besides. It has many 
departments, also, such as “ Man as an Invalid,” “ Woman as 
an Invalid,” and separate treatments for organic maladies, as 
the lungs, heart, stomach, liver, kidneys, etc.; also for nerve- 
diseases. Its great new department, “ What to Eat ” in each 
and every disease, condition, age, climate, season and meal, is 
the guide of physicians for the patients, and of a hundred 
thousand homes of people in health who find Ralstonism the 
pleasantest thing in the world. It is for this reason that 
most of those who are quite well enter “ Ralston Gardens.” 

See the IRON GATEWAY at the end of this book. 










































































































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i 


Co Ralston Realtb Club^ 
Washington, C. 




-V 


-rsr- 

"■Xt- 


X bold iri my own right, a copy of the BOOK OF 
GENERAL MEMBERSHIP^ which / have used, and 
will continue to use, for my own guidance, and will not 
lend or give the same to any other person. 

I BELIEVE that it is far better to keep sickness and 
expense away from the home by preventing them rather 
thafi to be constantly fighting them in the household, and I 
therefore wish to be fully prepared for the BATTLE 
AGAINST ILL HEALTH by entering'' Ralston Gardens 
of Life,'" for the book of which I hereby enclose the sum 
required to advance five degrees, so as to become at once a 
COMPLETE MEMBER, a7td to receive said book as a 
token from the Ralston Health Club. Said e^fiolument and 
all future etnoluments that I fuay receive I will keep for 
my exclusive use, and will not sell, lend or give them 
away during 7ny lifetime. 

I will not use, have or receive hi any way, any goods or 
articles that are named after the name of this Club. 

[Amount to be enclosed for five degrees advance and the 
emolument is five dollars. If you do not wish to agree to 
secure new members do not ask for coupons; otherwise ask 
for five free coupons good for five books of General Member¬ 
ship, under the conditions stated in the accompanying 
pages.] 

My name and full address are as follows: 

























































































































































































































































MN. 30 1903 













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